The Only Love I Could Ever Have
by AngelsMoonlitLove
Summary: An old friendship that turned into rivalry becomes something more when Sasuke Uchiha and Takiko Ryouko are placed on the same team and now must work through emotions and hatred if they ever want revenge.
1. Introduction: Taki's Profile

Introduction! Taki's Profile!

Name: Takiko (Taki) Ryouko (Pronounced Tah-kee-ko, Rie-oh-you-ko)

Age: 13

D.O.B: June 7th

Appearance:

Hair: Falls to her mid back, bangs are side swept above her left eyebrow with a red streak along it that falls all the way to the edge of her hair.

Eyes: Emerald green

Clothes: She wears a dark red turtleneck sleeveless shirt that is regular in front but the back is a long flap (think Sakura's battle kimono flap). She wears short, tight black shorts with kunai and dagger holders on both thighs (she's ambidexterous) and her hair is usually pulled into a ponytail. She wears fingerless leather gloves when she's in any form of combat or expecting any and fishnet gloves that run up to her elbows when she's relaxing in class or at home.

Attitude:

Taki is usually rather quiet and enjoys day dreaming but can be outspoken when she wants to and will speak her mind if she disagrees with something. She's almost always very calm but at times she has an extremely short fuse and when she gets mad it's scary. Sarcasm and a dry wit humor are her specialties and although Taki likes being left alone to her thoughts it doesn't happen much. Taki's very protective of friends and family (due to her past) and is willing to put her life on the line for someone who manages to earn her trust (which is a difficult thing to do). Although she hides her feelings well she comes off as cold to strangers because of the horrors she's seen. She's very spunky and feisty and is one of the best close quarter combatants around.

Likes & Dislikes:

Favorites:

Food- Sushi or chocolate

Drink: Water or soda

Animal: Wolf

Color: Blue

Weapons: Her daggers and glaive

Hates:

Food- Sashimi

Drink- Tea

Animal- Snake

Color- Pink

Weapon- Axes (she thinks they're bulky and ruin a fight)

Family:

Yuki Ryouko (10) - Taki's younger sister, she's two years below Taki in ninja school but has a brilliant mind and is a genius mathematician.

Kameko (9)- Taki's youngest sister, Kameko is in her second year of ninja school and although she wishes to have the ninja skills she plans on being a florist.

Friends:

Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi & Hinata Hyuga.

Jutsu's:

English/Japanese Translation (She varies between both)

Dragon Heart/Ryuuko Herutsu- Taki's signature jutsu, by lighting her arm of fire by expelling chakra she is able to release a powerful dragon made of flames.

Winter Storm/Shotou Arashi- A helpful jutsu for escaping, her chakra creates a blizzard of rain, wind and ice and although it hurts both herself and her enemy it only blinds the enemy.

Cracked Ground/Kiretsu Rikujou- Using chakra to hit fissure points in the earth she can split some of the ground apart without sacrificing a lot of chakra

Sacred Shield of Light/Seika Kakumau Akari- A defensive jutsu, she creates a bubble of sunlight that she can surround herself, friends or anyone she chooses however she has to keep her hands together making her easy to attack if she's not protected by the shield

Paralyzing Sorrow/Tou Hitan- Ropes of light and dark create a binding around an enemy

Gemini/Futagoza- She can create an identical image of herself (much like a shadow clone) however hers are solid and take wounds. It can either be made of light (invisible) or darkness (visible) and the two of them have a telepathic bond.


	2. Scroll 1: Enter: Takiko Ryouko!

Moonlit's Note: Okay I am sorry to the fans who have been reading the previous version of this. I feel totally rotten for doing this to you guys, but after reading my work I really couldn't STAND to write much better than the old version and have crappy writing turn to okay writing... so I am sorry to my fans!!! However, I PROMISE this 2.0 version will be the ONLY redo I do. Please give me a review and tell me if you like this new 'style' better! Thanks!

Chapter One~ The Genin Of Konoha

Scroll 1: Enter; Takiko Ryouko!

At six in the morning Konohagakure was as busy as any other time during the day, which made it a struggle for a five foot four twelve year old to get through such a crowd

"Excuse me!" a baker shouted as she tousled him trying to avoid a large lady.

She rolled her eyes and gave an apology then giving up trying to get through the morning market crowd she headed to an alleyway, leapt onto a fence and then onto a roof.

"No one can breathe in that crowd," she muttered bitterly, hooking some hair back behind her ear.

With that she started leaping from roof to roof, heading to her classroom, making a mental note that if she was going to train at four in the morning, to set an alarm so she didn't have to deal with this crowd anymore.

As she neared closer to her classroom she noticed something different about the Hokage Mountain… the first Hokage definitely didn't have face paint.

"Naruto…" she growled.

"A little swirl here, a moustache here… oh and a star here," Naruto Uzumaki stepped back to admire his work.

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

"GAH!" Naruto almost fell backwards off his platform at the voice.

He looked up to see one of his best friends Taki, seated on the Fourth Hokage's nose, looking disdainfully down at him.

"What?" he asked rubbing his head where he'd bumped into rock.

"If you get caught again you can forget me hauling you out, you're on your own," the raven haired girl warned him.

"Sheesh Taki that was one time."

"Twice."

"Okay twice, I'm not gonna get caught this time! I'm gonna finish this up before anyone notices!"

Taki sweatdropped, "Naruto you're on Hokage Mountain, I'm pretty sure **everyone **has noticed."

He shrugged and went back to painting.

"And don't be late for class or Iruka-sensei will have your tail!"

With that Taki leapt away flipping in mid air to land perfectly on a roof and then kept running towards the school, only about six building away.

"Sheesh Taki, school doesn't even start for another hour and a half…" he muttered shaking his head.

[Why is he always here? Does God hate me **this **much?]

Sure enough, as usual, Sasuke Egotistical-Pain-In-Her-Ass Uchiha was seated in his normal spot, wearing his normal blank expression and looking out his usual window. Taki sighed and walked in, dumping her bag as she sat down beside him, getting ignored. As always she sat on the second seat to the left, leaving two seats open on his right and room for one of her actual friends on her left side. She detested sitting beside on her least favorite people, but when they'd been eight and best friends they'd promised no matter what kind of fight they were in, or how much they didn't want to, they would always sit beside each other… to them it had been a way of holding their friendship together, keeping a promise even when they were mad. But that had been a long time ago, it was different now, she was tired of being next to him… at least she was about to graduate, then she'd never have to deal with Sasuke Uchiha. Thankfully there wasn't even a chance she'd be partnered with him, just yesterday they'd had the Top Rookie Ninja Graduate and Sasuke had ranked highest in boys and Taki highest in girls, even though she had lost the academic challenge to Sakura Haruno, she'd placed best in trap setting, emergency first aid, reflexes and now held the record for taijutsu battling. Anyway, because they were the Top Rookies, they would both be placed in a group they specialized in, so for Taki it would be a group who was skilled with hand to hand combat or perhaps in a group with slightly weaker taijutsu skills, so she could train them, while Sasuke would go into a predominately ninjutsu group, it was just the way it worked. Taki yawned and reached into her backpack for a book and her water. She loved water, she didn't know why, she just did and she drank it like crazy, usually going through five or six bottles a day. Another yawn slipped out and she rubbed her eyes, she'd slept like crap last night, tomorrow was their graduation tests and the day after placements, and Taki had said at least thirty-nine prayers that she wouldn't fail.

Really she should have been more confident in her skills but it was hard to be when she was competing with people like Sasuke… and she'd seen battle, probably more than others, she knew there were ninja that could kill ninja like her with a single blow and at the age they were at they got caught up in it, thinking they were the best of the best… but it wasn't true.

"Morning Takiko,"

She turned to see Hinata Hyuga, one of her good friends sit down behind her.

"Morning Hinata," Taki turned around and smiled, "You're early today."

"Yes," she nodded, "My father said it would be good for me to start getting here earlier, so I am prepared for our new sensei's."

Hinata was adorable but very odd, she always spoke softly and when they had first met she always spoke with her head down… now they talked like friends though.

"It's a good idea, how have you been?"

"Good," she whispered, "A little nervous."

"About graduation?"

She nodded.

"Hoping you get put in with Naruto?" Taki smiled saying it low enough that Sasuke couldn't hear.

Hinata's face went bright red and she got a horrified expression, "N-no! N-not at all!"

Taki's smile widened, "It's okay Hinata, I'm just teasing you."

"Y-yes… of course."

Hinata's head went down and she stared at the desk as Taki turned around and reopened her book.

A half hour later and Taki finally looked up, most of the classroom was full although her three best friends weren't here yet, which with Shika, Choji and Naruto it was not unusual. Shika was probably just heading out the door, Choji was most likely munching on chips while he waited for Shika at the corner and Naruto was either still defacing the Hokages or had been caught.

Just as she was popping some strawberry and lime gum in her mouth the door opened and both Shika and Choji trudged in and sat down beside her, Shika right next to her and Choji on the edge.

"Hi Shika, Choji."

"Morning Taki," Shikamaru yawned, rested his head on his hands.

It was funny, because all of her best friends were polar opposites to her personality, Shika was lazy whereas Taki could barely sit still for five minutes without needing to do something, Choji could be a little obnoxious and loud, Taki preferred to be on the quiet side, Hinata was completely and utterly shy, she was outgoing. As for Naruto… well he had ADD.

"Excited for tomorrow?" Taki asked popping the bubble she'd blown.

"Sounds troublesome."

Taki giggled, "Everything's troublesome for you."

Shikamaru just rolled his eyes.

"What about you Choji?"

"Of course I'm excited, I finally get to be a ninja!"

She smiled again.

"Sensei Iruka is really late," Hinata commented from behind looking at the clock, "Especially if Shikamaru beat him here."

"I bet it's due to Naruto," Taki made a face, "He was defacing the Hokage Mountain again."

Hinata frowned, "I wish he wouldn't do that."

Taki shrugged and turned around, putting her chin in one hand.

"Wake me up when we actually have class," Taki whispered to Shikamaru resting her head on her crossed arms atop the desk.

Shika smiled, "You first."

Suddenly there was a loud banging and cries of protest outside the door. The door swung open and a very pissed off looking Iruka emerged from the hallway, in his hand a rope, tied to the rope, Naruto.

He dragged the protesting boy down the aisle right beside Choji and Taki covered her mouth, trying to suppress laughter.

"You can all thank Naruto for me being two hours late, and also as punishment the _whole _class will be reviewing the transformation jutsu!"

Moans echoed across the classroom and choruses of 'thanks a lot!'

[What's the big deal?] Taki wondered, [It's not like it's a hard jutsu.]

"Starting from the farthest row back make a line, right to left."

Taki watched as the row behind her filed out and then she went, silently wishing she didn't have to be behind show-off Sakura Haruno. Bubblegum colored hair, obnoxious Sasuke-worshipping attitude and a sickening love for the color pink made her not okay in Taki's book. Not to mention they'd had several falling outs as kids spelling a large recipe for disaster between the two of them. Not to mention Taki thought she was so much better then Taki just because she was extremely intelligent and looked down at Taki like she was dumb. Despite the fact Taki only lost after they moved onto extremely high level math, which wasn't Taki's strong point. Sakura's arrogance didn't even bother her that much, she knew ninja needed to be intelligent, but really, was math going to save you in a hand to hand dual to the death? Or was years of training and knowledge going to?

Whatever.

"Alright, begin!" Iruka ordered.

Several students went ahead, changing themselves into Iruka perfectly or darn near close. Then Sakura went up.

"Copycat jutsu!" Sakura shouted.

With a puff Sakura was changed into Iruka, only with a wide cheesy grin.

"Good, Takiko you're next."

Sakura spun around ignoring Taki and looked to Sasuke, with the same grin, "Did you see that Sasuke? Wasn't that awesome?"

Sasuke just rolled his eyes slightly and looked at the roof.

[Well I do have to give him something.. he hates his fan girls just as much as I do.]

Taki moved forward and made a handsign.

"Copycat no jutsu!"

She too changed into a perfect Iruka, bored smirk and all.

"Well done. Sasuke, come on."

Taki spun around, tucking one leg behind the other and as she spun she turned into a picture perfect Sakura, fake wide grin and she twirled her finger in her hair.

"Sasuke! Did you see that? I can totally do the very first jutsu we ever learned in ninja school! Isn't that totally impressive? We should go out because I'm _so _good!"

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" Sakura roared.

Taki changed back into herself and erupted into absolute giggles then got a hold of herself, popped her gum and headed back to her seat, smirking at Shikamaru and Choji who were both covering their mouths as they tried not to laugh.

Taki trotted up the stairs and sat down, smirking as Sakura turned around and stuck her tongue out.

"Oh very adult Sakura, very mature. I'm sure you'll will Sasuke's heart with such wonderfully adult expressions."

Sakura scowled and put her head in her arms and Taki decided not to agonize Sakura further and instead focus on what was happening down front. Which was actually rather amusing considering the fact it was about to be Naruto's turn.

"Transform!"

Instead of copying Iruka-sensei and the other students Naruto had to be different. He changed into a sexy blond girl with her golden hair pulled up into extremely high ponytails, legs crossed winking and bent forward in a seductive pose. Tiny clouds of white smoke that barely covered her privates floated around her lower half and breasts.

For a moment it looked as if Iruka would explode, which he did, blood rupturing from his nose as he flew backwards.

Taki sweatdropped and covered her mouth with her hands, stifling giggles.

"NARUTO YOU MORON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

~--o--~


	3. Official Apology

An Apology From Moonlit-

First of all, to all the new people who have come along and favorite my story thank you so much, it means a lot to me when I've only placed out one chapter and have so many people reading it. Secondly I apologize to my old favorites for my lack of story placement, a lot has been going on in my life and made it difficult to almost impossible to get online for more than two minutes and upload my stories. Not to mention travelling a lot has meant I've been unable to upload them because the files are on my home PC. This said and done, starting Monday, July 5th, I will be uploading three times a week and July 5th will be my official 'birthdate' of TOLICEH. So once again, I'm sorry it's taken so long but now that's summer arrived I'll be able to upload a lot more frequently.

That said and done, to celebrate the 'birth' of TOLICEH, I'd like you (the readers) to send me a PM telling me which of these things you would like done to celebrate it.

A SasukexTakiko Lemon Unrelated To The Story (I can do this one after we pass Scroll 20)  
A SasukexTakiko Lemon Related To The Story (I won't be able to do this one til we get to 40-50)  
A Chakrathon (Every day for two weeks I'll release a story one chapter at a time)  
A Special For Every Holiday (4th Of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc.)

Thank you to everyone who votes and thank you to ALL my readers who have been so patient with me, see you all tomorrow!

Moonlit


	4. Scroll 2: Visiting Memories

Moonlit's Note- Sorry for such a short chapter. For some reason FFnet didnt upload this last night... 0.o Oh well, I'll put out a longer chapter tomorrow! I wanted pictures for Taki's parents but I can't upload them =o *mrr face*

**Scroll 2: Visiting Memories**

"_Mommy! Mommy wait!"  
__Itanako spun, black hair swirling around her face almost poetically around her face as a red aura burned from the door behind her.  
_"_Takiko! You must stay here and protect your siblings you hear? I don't care what happens you must all stay safe!"  
_"_But mom!" Taki protested, "I want to help you!"  
"By protecting them you will be!"  
__A sudden explosion outside made Itanako turn, "Taki be safe!"_

Taki sat bolt upright in bed, sweat rolling down her forehead, hands shaking, tears in her eyes as she looked around.  
[Another nightmare…]  
She looked over at the clock which shone in bold white text, 4:21 AM. Taki bent over in bed, hugging her knees close to her chin as she looked out the window at the slowly descending moon.  
"Oh mom… I miss you so much…"  
Four years had passed since that day. The day that had changed Taki from one of the most beloved children in the Ryouko village, the eldest child of Itanako and Ryuu, an ANBU black op medical nin and an ANBU black op hand-to-hand specialist… to an orphan. To being important to only two people. Her two little sisters. There were days like today when she awoke from nightmares and would run downstairs like she'd done when she was small to her mother and father's room… only now she would end up in the back garden and would be reminded once again that she was alone in this world. Even now, with both Kameko and Yuki living away from her, she had gradually felt the distance tug at them and everyday it killed her. It tore her heart apart to think that because she was unable to take care of them… that she couldn't fulfill the single promise she had given her parents the day they died. There were days Taki wanted to do nothing but cry herself to sleep at night, and nights that she gave in and just curled into a ball letting tears pour down her cheeks. An then, most days, she took all of the pain and wrapped it into a ball and locked it away deep in her heart, where no one could touch it and she couldn't feel it… where she didn't spend every day wondering 'what if…' Taki swore that if she ever had a chance… a moment where she faced them down and had to defend the helpless… the defenseless… those who had depended on her for safety… she wouldn't stand down, she wouldn't dare watch them die. Taki blinked and looked from the moon to the house next to her. It was quiet, shades drawn and still dark, making her feel envy for sleep. But she'd learnt a long time ago to never close her eyes after a nightmare, because then, the memories became more real, less dreamlike, vivid and bloody, the hell she had been through that day.  
Taki shook her head violently, clearing those thoughts, pity wasn't what she wanted, not from anyone, not from herself. She flipped her legs over the side of the bed and headed straight for the shower, sweat from nightmares making her clothing sticky. Even though it was early February, they were just now losing their last droplets of January snow, so it was still rather chilly out, but nightmares had those effects on people.

A half hour later, after running her hot water heater cold she climbed out of the shower, dried her hair and changed into her clean daily uniform and headed downstairs for breakfast. She looked at the clock which now read 5:13 and decided to take a leisurely meal, normally she ate no more than a bowl of cereal or a piece of fruit on her way out the door, but today she decided it was worth it to make something. So she decided on a bowl of cereal with strawberries diced on top. As she sat down to her 'gourmet' breakfast, Taki looked at the little place she called home. She lived in a pretty home, a double story small little thing but it did have an attic and rooftop access and enough of a front and back yard for a garden. She'd inherited a love of gardening from her father, who had had a magical way with plants, and now grew a variety of herbal flowers in her front yard, which she would boil down and make into medicine on a quiet Saturday. The inside of the house was painted white but not that awful hospital white, just a nice mellow kind. The floor was light colored wood in the kitchen, stairs and hallways as well as the laundry room. Her living room (which consisted of a cushy worn leather chair and more books than a library was less traditional looking with dark red carpet. On quiet Saturday nights she loved to curl up in the chair and read for hours or she would go to her backyard where she had set up an easel under the awning and paint. Honestly, she was very artistic and creative, it had come from her mother, but she had taught herself when she could let that daydreamer side out, because she knew it wasn't a good idea if she was in a battle. She considered herself lucky, after she'd gone to the Hokage when her parents had died, he'd allowed a slight bending of the laws, enabling her to have a good chunk of the yen her parents left her so she might get a home, after Taki told him that apartments with other orphans would never work. Granted, she couldn't look after her little sisters, but at least they'd found good foster parents. When she turned eighteen she'd be able to care for them, but for now it was impossible. Taki dumped her sink in the bowl, rinsed it and leaned against the counter looking at the pictures on the wall. There were four in total, two the normal canvas size and two slightly blown up photographs and had been put in a line on the wall opposite the counters and stove. The first one in line was the painting of a river scene, actually how the Ryouko River had once looked. It was beautiful and crystal clear, with flowers on either side of the bank and a small wooden bridge that went from one side to the other. A fish was visible in the sparkling water and then if you could stop looking at the mesmerizing water for a moment, there was a grand old willow beside the river in the distance, with a small wooden swing hanging there. Flowers were barely visible in the edge of the canvas and the grass was fresh and green. It was a truly beautiful painting, and because it had been done in watercolors it looked absolutely realistic, like you could touch the water and feel your fingers get wet. Taki had always wanted to paint like that. The picture next to it was a photograph, a picture of her mother, a beautiful woman with long black hair flowing to her waist, each strand tipped with snow white. Her eyes were a clear bright green, the color of a cut emerald and filled with laughter as she sat on the swing hanging from a tree. Behind her was green grass and bold wildflowers, glimmering with bright colors.  
At the time of the photograph, Taki had only been about four or five years old… it had been a fall day, Itanako had taken Taki and Eiji to the river, even though it had been too cold to swim, the two of them had pretended they were great ninja just like mom and dad. According to everyone who'd known Itanako, they said Taki was the spitting image of her, attitude especially. The both of them were feisty, slightly on the quick tempered side and sarcastic as all get out.  
The next picture was her father, short blond hair that draped into his eyes and dreamy hazel eyes and a long nose that matched his long, handsome face.

Ryuu was much different than Itanako. He was a quiet calculating man even in battle, and unlike his wife, was very patient and understanding. She had gotten his silence and ability to hide emotion. Together they had been the perfect team… her father the silent fighter, and her mother the feisty healer…

Taki shook her head and grabbed her lunch and stuffed it into her backpack, tossed it over her shoulder and headed out the door.

~-o-~


	5. Scroll 3: I'm With Who! You're Kidding

Moonlit's Notes: Phew. This took ages to reformat so there's not a bum load of line breaks (curse you line breaks!) and this is actually a LONG chapter!  
I actually didn't realise how many people are actually reading this, 57 readers! I feel soooo awesome! Thank you guys for being amazing and reading my work.  
Oh also, my laptop broke today XD And that laptop contains ALLLLLL my chapters (since I'm up to about 20) so I may not be able to upload Friday but I'll try my hardest!  
One final note, so far I've recieved ONE vote for the whole 'apology' poll. Remember this is the poll options

A SasukexTakiko Lemon Unrelated To The Story (I can do this one after we pass Scroll 20)  
A SasukexTakiko Lemon Related To The Story (I won't be able to do this one til we get to 40-50)  
A Chakrathon (Every day for two weeks I'll release a chapter)  
A Special For Every Holiday (including non-American ones as long as you're willing to send me the date and a little info on the holiday)

You guys still have until July 18th which is when the official 'voting' will close and I'll announce what I'm doing for you guys.  
Don't forget to review! Thanks! =D

Scroll Three;

I'm With Who? You're Kidding… Right?

"Alright everyone, exams are beginning and I'm going to randomly call in students."  
Iruka walked into the side room and as he went he called someone's name. Moments later the same boy came out cheering with a headband.  
[That easy?] Taki raised an eyebrow.  
"Takiko Ryouko," Iruka called.  
Her heart started beating fast, what if it wasn't easy? What if his had been a fluke? WHY did she have to be second?  
She shook her head, this wasn't going to scare her, she would be a ninja, even if this was a hard exam.  
Taki stood up and walked down, Shikamaru giving her a reassuring smile, Choji a rather greasy thumbs up, Hinata a whisper of good luck and Kiba a threatening good luck wish… which really counteracted the purpose of telling someone good luck if you were trying to freak them out.  
She pulled open the door and smiled at Sensei Iruka and Sensei Mizuki.  
"This should be easy for you Takiko," Mizuki smiled tilting his head.  
"All you have to do is create three identical clones, if you create less or they're not identical you fail," Iruka warned.  
Taki nodded, "Alright."  
She made a quick sign, "Art of the doppelganger!"  
Three puffs of smoke came up revealing four identical Taki, each in the same pose with the same cocky smirk.  
"Excellent," Iruka marked on his clip board.  
Taki made them disappear in a second puff of smoke and walked forward to the table, her heart barely in her chest  
"Merushi Sensei Iruka," Taki bowed taking her headband, then she bowed to Sensei Mizuki, "Arigato Sensei Mizuki."  
She walked out of the classroom and grinned at Shikamaru, twirling the headband on her fingers.  
"Hey guess what Shikamaru? I passed!"

"Congratulations son you graduated!"  
"Good job honey, mom is gonna make a feast tonight!"  
Praise echoed all around Taki's ears, mixing pain and sadness together as it roared. None of it was for her. Nor would it ever be.  
She'd wanted for a long time now to be able to see the pride on her parent's faces when she graduated. Now… that seemed like a long lost dream, something that was so close to touch but so far away. Once she had dreamed of her parents bowling in, pride gleaming on their faces as Yuki and Kameko came charging in after them. Her father would pick her up and spin her despite her protests and her mother telling her that she would make all of Taki's favorites for dinner and they would have a party.  
Taki had to snicker, she had a little bit of the dream, the crowd, the cheers and the laughter… despite the fact none of it was for her. Every dream that Taki had ever had as a little girl had been shattered, ruined and torn apart…  
Taki raised her head trying to keep from dwelling on that thought when she saw a group of girls and boys, laughing, showing off their headbands and tackling one another.  
She turned her head and saw Naruto, not too far from you, sitting sideways on a swing, his hands gripping the rope as his head drooped, and the tree that held the swing cast shadows along his sad eyes.  
[He's the only one who didn't graduate… I wonder if he's going to keep trying?]  
Then out of the corner of Taki's eye she saw Sasuke leaning against another tree, in his 'Too Cool' pose but his eyes betrayed his stance. He was sad, lonely…  
[Of course, I bet he dreamed of this day too, no doubt with his parents and everyone, his friends… not some drooling fan girls…]  
"Hey Taki, ready to go?" Shikamaru asked, appearing beside her.  
"Yeah," she nodded, brushing off the thoughts.  
"Okay, come on, your sister's are probably already waiting for you."

~11:19 PM~

"Thank you very much for dinner Mrs. Nara," Taki smiled as she put the last dry dish into the cupboard.  
"You're very welcome Taki, I'm glad you liked it," Shikamaru's mother, Yoshino smiled as she stored the small amount of leftovers in the fridge, "I'm also glad I made extra!"  
"How did you eat so much?" Shikamaru asked, as he lazed on the ground, pillow under his elbows.  
Taki just shrugged.  
"Shikamaru has a point, you're so thin!" Yoshino smiled patting your stomach and then her own plumper belly, "How come I'm not that lucky?"  
"Blessed I suppose," Taki smiled.  
Kameko gave a big yawn and rubbed her eyes.  
"I hate to eat and run Mrs. Nara, but I still have to walk Kameko and Yuki home," Taki nodded towards her half asleep sister's.  
Shikamaru's father Shikaku laughed softly, "That's just fine Taki, but make sure you rub off more on Shikamaru while you two are ninja. He's so lazy… perhaps if you can give him a little motivation."  
"Dad!" Shikamaru glared at his father.  
Shikaku gave a great laugh and Kameko giggled sleepily.  
"Well it's true son, you're grades are awful, you barely passed the entrance and graduation exam, you're always slacking off from chores, you never do **anything**…"  
"I get it dad!" Shikamaru interrupted.  
"Yet you get a best friend who's not only a looker but who never slacks off, has great grades, passed the exam with flying colors," Shikaku smiled with a hint of pride at his son.  
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "Doing stuff is so bothersome!"  
"You always say that Shika," Taki smiled, tilting her head to one side.  
Shikamaru offered another eye roll at that comment.  
"Well I've got to go, come on Kameko, Yuki, it'll be after midnight before I'm in bed at the rate we're going!" Taki patted their shoulders and Kameko and Yuki stood up.  
Yoshino smiled again, "Come back again soon Taki! We love having you here," she nodded at Kameko and Yuki, "If the three of you weren't so well rooted in your homes we'd adopt you!"  
Taki grinned, "It is a shame then, Yuki adores your cooking. Thank you again!"  
"You're quite welcome, now Shikaku!" Yoshino turned to her husband, "Why don't you escort the girl's home?"  
"But Yoshi…"  
"_Shikaku_!" her voice was dangerous.  
"It's okay Mrs. Nara, I'll take my sister's home, don't worry about us," Taki objected with a sweat drop.  
She had seen Shikaku fight before on a field exam last year, he had been quick, smart and fearless. Yet when it came to his five foot tall, plump, peppery wife, he seemed terrified.  
"Well if you insist Takiko," Yoshino smiled and bowed, "Good night Taki, Yuki, Kameko."  
"Good night Mrs. Nara, thank you again," Yuki and Kameko choursed.  
"See you tomorrow Shikamaru!" Taki led her sister's out the door.  
"See ya," he replied yawning.  
The night air was bitter sweet, the air was sharp and cold and the scents on the wind were delicate and calming.  
"Taki, we shall walk home from here, you go back to your own home," Yuki stopped her sister.  
"Will you guys be okay?" Taki frowned.  
"Of course big sister!" Kameko squealed, "Race you home Yuki!"  
"Good night Taki," Yuki took off leaving Kameko in her dust.  
"HEY!" Kameko shrieked, pouring on the speed after her.  
Taki smiled softly and headed toward her own house, as much of a relief as it was to not have to deal with walking them home, she worried about their safety.  
Sleepiness hadn't yet worked its way into her, but she anticipated it doing so soon, as long as she stopped walking. But her brain felt like she'd drunk way too much coffee, it buzzed madly, trying to find a thought to stop on.  
[Now what? I'm a ninja, even if it's only a genin, so now what? Do I wait til I'm a jonin and then try to leave? Or should I leave early? What does it matter if I don't know how strong he is, I would have no way of knowing in a life or death situation if I would come out alive…]

Taki looked up, she had walked to the woods near her house, she was situated in the southern corner of the Konohagakure village. Further south of her was the old gardens that the Fourth Hokage had set up but it had been abandoned, now only a few people even remembered it. Surrounded by a stone wall that was covered in ivy the garden was about five acres and was nothing but weeds and dirt and huge, ancient trees. Taki loved to come here to think, not to mention her parents were buried not even a half a mile away. The giant cherry blossom was visible even in the low light because of the Chinese lanterns she had hung upon the petal less limbs. She drew close and had to smile, the wooden crosses had been driven into the ground and seemed more of a returning spot than an actual grave, two rose bushes had been planted on either side of the tree and pictures that were slightly weatherworn hung from the limbs of the tree, memories of the times the Ryouko family actually had together.

_Itanako Ryouko, _

_The wings of tomorrow have descended upon me,_

_Bringing me up to heaven to wait for the family I love._

_Ryuu Ryouko_

_Although my life is dead and my soul is gone,_

_The memories I leave shall last for an eternity._

Taki bit her lip as she read and reread their grave markings, they may have sounded odd, but they were from an old Ryouko storybook her father read her as a child. Itanako had been a hot headed, spunky and sarcastic woman but was so tender hearted with her family that she was sometimes known as the Two Faced ANBU. In one photo Taki could see their real family resemblance. Taki was a smiling five year old who gripped her mother's hand as the two walked side by side in kimono's for the Konoha Cherry Fire Festival. Both of their hair's was braided back and they were smiling. Taki wore a red and gold kimono with a small waterfall design along the edges while her mother looked elegant in blue and silver. If Taki could take that picture now, there would be no way to tell the two of them apart, Itanako was short for her years, rising to only five foot three, which wasn't more than two inches taller than Taki herself.  
A owl hooted in the distance bringing Taki away from the photo's and she turned and walked back to the house, biting back tears at all the memories.

~5:28 AM~

[One day I'll make 5:30 am…] Taki yawned as she sat up in bed.  
She had made it back to her bedroom at midnight and the second her head hit the pillow she was asleep. Her body was used to its lacking of sleep so even a simple five hour nap was enough to make it through till later tonight. She rested her chin on the window sill and noticed her neighbor had actually left his blinds open for once, but his figure was still huddled in bed, obviously sleeping better than her.  
[Lucky teme…]  
Taki yawned again, wishing she had the luxury of sleeping until noon and then hopped up and headed to the shower to begin another day.

~7:27 AM~

Taki sat at her desk, headband proudly displayed from its hanging position around her belt. Mizu and Kaji were now in special holders next to the kunai holders on both legs, Mizu in a blue water design and Kaji in a red fire design. Everyone wore their headbands proudly, some on their foreheads, some like headbands and a few even wore it like a belt or hanging from their neck, but only a few got creative with it. Choji had made it look like a pair of underwear on his head, Shikamaru wore in on his arm and one of the boys wore it around his thigh.  
[Poor Naruto… he's the only one who failed…]  
As if to prove that last thought a lie, the door banged open and Taki practically flew out of her skin.  
"I'm a ninja! Believe it!"  
[Only **one **person says believe it…]  
"Hey Taki-chan! Check it out! I passed!" Naruto grinned from the spot he took beside her as he adjusted his headband that was tied across his forehead.  
"Good job Naruto," Taki replied with a soft smile.  
As she said that a boy came up behind Naruto and narrowed his eyes saying, "Class today is only for students who **didn't **fail!"  
Naruto sweat dropped and then narrowed his eyes and pointed at his head, "Can't you see the headband?"  
"Naruto can I pass?"  
Naruto and Taki looked up to see the Flat Pink One standing there.  
Naruto's eyes widened and drool began to dribble down his mouth while Taki rolled her eyes.  
{Sakura wants to sit next to me…} he thought with lovesick drawn across his face.  
[Crap, crap, crappity crap…] Taki was banging her head on her hand.  
"NARUTO MOVE IT! I'M TRYING TO GET BY!"  
Before Naruto could say anything Sakura leapt onto Naruto's back, hopped over you and Sasuke, sitting comfortably on the other side of him, love hearts in her eyes.  
Taki giggled into her hand as Naruto brought his head up scowling.  
{What's so great about him? I don't get it!}  
Taki watched with interest as Naruto climbed onto the desk, squatted in front of Sasuke and death glared the boy.  
"Naruto! Leave Sasuke alone!" Sakura cried.  
[This is going to end horribly… I know it…]  
"What's so great about you?" Naruto snapped.  
"Get out of my face loser," Sasuke growled.  
Taki's prediction came true not a second later when the boy in front of Naruto put his arm back and hit the back of Naruto's kneecap, knocking him forward.  
Sweat ran down the boys faces the instant Naruto's lips collided with Sasuke's as Sakura fell to the ground with a scream and every fan girl in the room screamed. Suddenly Taki began laughing, hard. So hard that she thought she was going to bring up a lung.  
They pulled away gagging as Taki bit her fist to stop laughing which was unsuccessful when she saw Sasuke's face.  
He was so pale as he spat into his shirt sleeve he looked like he would puke any minute. Naruto was gripping his throat making gagging sounds.  
"Naruto! I'm going to kill you, you bakka!"  
"My throat its poisoned!" Naruto cried, falling back and rolling back and forth on the table.  
Shikamaru began to laugh loudly at their reactions making Taki bite her fist even harder to fight back the giggles from lungs. Sasuke gave her a death glare which she unsuccessfully tried to return.  
"Nar-u-to…" a burning deadly voice hissed.  
Taki turned and saw Sakura standing there, cracking her knuckles as a menacing shadow draped over her face.  
"His first kiss was supposed to be me!" Sakura snapped.  
"But… but it was an accident!" Naruto objected trying to defend himself.  
"You're toast!"

"Oh…" Naruto moaned.  
"Well you shouldn't have kissed him," Taki said matter-of-factly.  
Naruto glared at the smirking Taki who was popping a bright yellow bubble of gum.  
"From this day on, you are no longer students of the shinobi way, but rather a shinobi yourself. Though you're a genin, the lowest rank of ninja, you are a ninja all the same, challenges lie ahead in this patlife and the next step is the assignment of official duties for the newest additions to the shinobi of Konohagakure," Iruka smiled, proud obvious in his face.  
[Hah, I never was a student, I've been a shinobi since birth you just didn't know it until now,] Taki had to smirk.  
Naruto was laying with his head on the desk, one eye swollen shut, cuts and nasty bruises on his face and arms. Sasuke sat on the other side of Taki, trying to regain his composure but his face was still very pale.  
"Now seeing as how we have an uneven number of students this year, one squad will have four members instead of the usual three man squad that are usually known. Do not think of your team mates as hindrances, obstacles or anything other than your equal. We have designed these teams to complement one another and learn from one another, your team mates will teach you valuable lessons and fighting skills and you will teach them. You will be watched over by a jonin, a far more senior ninja who will teach you, get you familiar with assignments, whether their easy or hard and they will keep you alive."  
{Three man cells… possibly four? Sounds like two or three too many…} Sasuke thought with a scowl.  
{I don't care who I'm partners with as long as it's not Sasuke!} Naruto chewed on his own gum.  
{I just know I'll be partnered with Sasuke!} Sakura grinned, love struck.  
[Learn from them huh? I don't care who I'm paired with as long as it's not Sasuke…] Taki cocked her head as she popped a bubble, [Or Ino… and Sakura…]  
"Squad 1…"  
Taki sighed and blanked out the rest of the painfully slow team assignments. Why did they get teams? It wasn't as if there wasn't a ton of shinobi in Konoha, couldn't they just get a mentor and be on their merry way? Or at the very least, just ONE other person... Not two.  
"Squad 7, Haruno Sakura… Uzumaki Naruto…"  
"No I'm doomed!" Sakura yelped.  
Naruto leapt up and screamed, "YES!"  
[Heh… this ought to be interesting…]  
"Uchiha, Sasuke…"  
"No I'm doomed!" Naruto yelped.  
Sakura leapt up and screamed, "YES!"  
[It just keeps getting better and better…] Taki smirked.  
"And Ryouko, Takiko."  
"What?" Taki yelped jumping up out of her chair, "I'm with who? You're kidding right?"  
"Why on earth did you pair me with Sasuke?" both Taki and Naruto cried pointing at the seated Uchiha.  
"That's a very easy answer. Naruto, you had the worst grades in the entire class, Sasuke and Takiko had the best. You need the help and Taki, Sasuke and Sakura can provide it," Iruka replied.  
"No, no, no…" Taki began beating her head on the desk, rather hard.  
{They'll work it out.} Iruka smiled.  
"Squad 8, Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino."  
[Why me… why me… why me…]  
"Squad 10, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji."  
[WHAT? CHOJI AND SHIKA ARE TOGETHER? NO FAIR!] Taki's head jolted up, a bruise starting where she had been whacking it.  
"I suggest you eat with your new team mates, get to know then and then after lunch I'll introduce you to your new sensei. Until then, dismissed."

Taki chomped into her sushi with a vengeance. She really hated the Hokage and Iruka and anyone else who put her into this team. One day, she would kill them… okay maybe not... but she was tempted.  
"This sucks…" she grumbled putting a spoonful of rice into her mouth, "This really sucks…"  
Taki would NOT, EVER, ON ANY CONDITION eat lunch with Sakura Haruno with Sasuke Uchiha in the same vicinity. Naruto was unable to be found and Sasuke she didn't really give a damn about it.  
"What the?" Taki noticed out of the corner of her eye Sasuke was standing next to an open window, chewing on a rice ball. The tips of Naruto's blond were visible from the window sill.  
[What is he doing?]  
Suddenly Sasuke was pulled back through the window, rope pulled around his chest. Taki cocked her head as she watched with interest, stuffing her now empty lunchbox into her backpack. Almost ready to go investigate Taki saw Sasuke climb out the same window, a wicked grin on his face.  
[Sasuke's smiling?]  
Taki had to raise her eyebrows in disbelief and stood up, swinging the backpack so it sat across her chest and then hopped across two trees and onto the window sill.  
"Sasuke?" Taki looked in.  
Sasuke was on the ground with duct tape in the shape of an X on his mouth and his hands and feet tied back.  
"What the hell did you do to piss off Naruto?" Taki smiled behind her hand.  
Sasuke mumbled something as he fixed her with a glare.  
Taki bent down and ripped the duct tape off of his face making him snap out in pain.  
"Ow! Where the hell is that bakka?"  
"How should I know? Just be grateful I came to get you out!" Taki snapped back and cut the ropes with a kunai.  
Sasuke just pushed past her and leapt out the window, knocking her backwards into the wall.  
[You jerk! I help you and this is the thanks I get?] Taki growled.  
She followed him out the window, leaping into the trees to give that jerk a piece of her mind the second she could.  
Suddenly she noticed the fire that practically flamed in her eyes, anger radiated from him.  
[Why is he so mad?]  
Taki raced ahead of him, only to see Sasuke running away from Sakura gripping his stomach.  
[What the?]  
She backtracked and watched Sakura sit there, poking her cheek and muttering to herself.  
Sasuke came back into sight, the same cloud of anger roaring.  
[Of course… but why would Naruto pose as Sasuke?]  
Taki jumped into the tree above Sakura's head, silent as night.  
[To get to Sakura, duh! He's had a crush on her forever!]  
"It's because he was brought up so badly!" Sakura whined.  
"You do know he never had any parents," Sasuke scowled.  
"That's why! He doesn't have to answer to anyone! He's so annoying! Being alone has made him selfish! He doesn't have anyone telling him what to do. So he gets away with stuff MY parents would KILL me for! He's so lucky he doesn't have them!"  
Anger roared in Taki's veins the second she heard that comment. The branch she had held in her hand snapped, sending a sliver of wood into her hand that she promptly pulled out as blood welled at the opening.  
Before Sasuke could reply to Sakura, Taki dropped down beside Sakura. They both looked in wide eyes amazement at her but she didn't care, angry tears burned the back of her eyes.  
"So we're lucky?" Taki raised an eyebrow, barely able to keep her anger under control, "Us orphans are lucky? Oh yes we're so lucky that we don't have anyone to go home to! Anyone to talk to! Someone who got to see their parents killed in front of their eyes are so lucky! Lucky, lucky, lucky us!"  
"No Sakura, you're the lucky one! It must be SO hard to go home and have someone love you! To have someone want to know about your day! To have someone just care about you! You have no idea what it is to be alone! To you it's just a joke! But you have no clue what it's like!"  
Unable to contain the angry tears much longer, she turned, shoved past Sasuke, almost knocking him over and headed into the trees.

~4:37 PM~

"He's late," Naruto announced.  
"No, freaking, duh," Taki mumbled looking out the window from the sill she sat on.  
Taki was still steaming over Sakura's immature and selfish comments, who hadn't come anywhere near her since the incident and even Sasuke kept his distance. Naruto got the hint after Taki death glared him away so now she was on the opposite side of the room to everyone else. After all the four of her were the only ones in the room. Team 7's sensei was THREE, FREAKING, HOURS, LATE.  
Taki didn't care, she didn't care if he ever came…  
The reminder of being alone, being uncared for, being unloved always did that… it just made her not care.  
"Naruto what are you doing?" Sakura sighed from the first row.  
Naruto stood on a small desk putting a chalk eraser between the door and wall.  
"If he's really as good as he says he is then he'll have no trouble catching it," Naruto replied, hopping down and returning the desk back to its place.  
"Well I want no part of it," Sakura hmphed.  
Sasuke shook his head, "No way a jonin could be caught with such a stupid trick."  
Taki just shook her head and put her forehead against the cold window.  
Just as she did the door gave a creak and Taki turned back to see the sliding door open.  
_Plunk.  
_"HAHA! I GOT YOU GOOD!" Naruto announced with a grin.  
"I'm so sorry Sensei! I tried to stop him!" Sakura complained.  
[Liar,] Taki rolled her eyes.  
{Bunch of morons,} Sasuke rolled his eyes.  
The man walked in with a large square chalf mark on his already silver hair. A mask covered from his nose down and his headband covered on eye. He wore the traditional outfit of the Konohagakure shinobi, the makimono (scroll pouch), black pants and a single shuriken holster. Taki couldn't help but feel the side of her mouth tweak into a small smile at Naruto's nervous grin, Sakura's frightened look and Sasuke's scowl. The jonin calmly replaced the eraser and looked from Taki to Sasuke, from Sakura to Naruto thoughtfully.  
{Interesting looking team…} he thought.  
He put his hand on his chin as if he was thinking and said, "Hm… how shall I put this? Based on my first impression… I'd have to say… YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF MORONS!"

Squad 7 sat on the roof of the academy watching the teacher. Taki sat between the boys and Sakura sat on the other side of Sasuke.  
"Now I want you to all tell me a little about yourselves," the sensei said.  
"Like what?" Sakura asked, tilting her head to one side.  
"Oh you know… usual stuff…favorite things, what you hate most, dreams, ambitions, hobbies that kind of stuff," he shrugged.  
"Well help us out. You're a complete mystery to us, show us how it's done!" Naruto replied.  
"Alright my name is Hatake, Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his likes and dislikes. My dreams are none of your business and I have a lot of hobbies."  
Taki sweat dropped and Sakura sighed, "Well THAT was pointless all we learned was his name!"  
[Like I care, we'll find out sooner or later.]  
"Okay your turn kid in the orange," Kakashi pointed to Naruto.  
"Me?"  
"You're the only one wearing even a trace of orange…" Taki sighed.  
"Right! I'm Uzumaki, Naruto! What I like is an instant cup of ramen! What I like even better is when Sensei Iruka treats me to ramen at the Ichiraku Noodle Bar! What I hate is the three minutes you have to wait after pouring in the water!"  
[He really likes his ramen…]  
"My dream is to be the Hokage! Then all the villagers will have to respect me, and start treating me like I'm somebody!"  
[Naruto…] Taki turned and looked at his determined face.  
"My hobbies are pranks and practical jokes!"  
"Okay, pink girl," Kakashi smiled beneath his mask.  
"I'm Haruno Sakura, what I like is well… it's not a thing… it's a person… a boy… and that boy is…" Sakura blushed and giggled, poking her cheek softly, "Uh… let's move onto my dream," she looked over and gave a hiccup/giggle.  
{It looks like young girls are more interested in love more than ninjutsu…} Kakashi sighed.  
Taki began making gagging motions gripping her throat making Sasuke smirked slightly.  
"What I hate is Naruto…" then Sakura saw Taki's motions, "AND TAKI!"  
While Naruto looked completely disappointed, Taki on the other hand pumped her first, grinned and cried, "Finally! My mission in life is completed!"  
{She is so strange…} Sasuke thought amused.  
"Goth kid," Kakashi leaned back.  
Sasuke scowled and Taki smiled behind her hand.  
"My name is Uchiha, Sasuke. Since I hate a lot of things and don't like much, I don't see how telling you what I like matters. It's pointless to talk about dreams because it's nothing but a word, but what I do have is determination. The determination to restore my clan and to kill someone."  
[Sasuke… we're so alike… yet so different… wait a second… he wants to restore his clan? That means he'd have to…] Taki smiled wider behind her hand, [Wonder who? Sakura? Ino? Interesting looking kids… wait I hear he likes girls with long hair… CRAP!]  
Taki checked her hair and narrowed her eyes.  
[Crap, it's too long… wait what does it matter?]  
"Black haired girl."  
"Oh, my name is Ryouko, Takiko. I like climbing trees, star gazing, swimming, chocolate and training. I hate girly girls and pink, tea and snakes. My hobbies are painting and writing. Like Sasuke I don't have a dream, I will get revenge and show everyone I'm better than they think and I can be who my clan wanted me to be."  
All three young ninja turned their head to look at Taki who was staring at the clouds.  
{Her clan wanted her to be? Just who are the Ryouko?} Naruto thought.  
{Prove she's better? She's already the top rookie, how much more does she want?} Sakura raised her eyebrow.  
{Revenge… it should be vengeance, her clan was slaughtered just as violently as mine…} Sasuke clenched his fist.  
"Alright, I think we understand one another now. Training begins tomorrow."  
"YES SIR! WHAT WILL WE BE DOING? IT'S OUR FIRST REAL MISSION!" Naruto yelled, leaping up and saluting.  
"It will be a survival exercise for all five of us to do."  
"But Sensei! Our days were full of survival training! Why would that be a mission?" Sakura complained.  
"Because you have to survive against me."  
"But…" Naruto was trying to figure it out.  
Kakashi snickered making Taki frown.  
"Why are you laughing Sensei?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.  
"Oh nothing… it's just I'll see you at six am, sharp at the bridge. The exercise will show if you will go back to the Academy. Out of twenty eight people of your graduating only nine will be accepted as a genin. The other nineteen will go back for more training, and the exercise has a 66% chance of failure."  
[I am not going back to the academy! I've worked too hard!] Taki thought viciously.  
"Well see you tomorrow. And don't eat breakfast, not unless you wanna see it again."


	6. Scroll 4: Congratulations You Fail!

Scroll 4: Congratulations… You Fail!

Taki walked towards the training grounds silently, despite their name, she never trained here. But it was nice, plenty of stumps, large trees, dummy's to beat up on… not counting Naruto of course… but she preferred her own little paradise. She sat down on a large rock, right square in the middle on the training grounds and looked at the sky. It was early, just past five thirty, so as a result it was still partially dark with the sun still rising. She really had nothing better to do but read. So she sat down on her butt and flicked open her book.  
Barely ten minutes later Taki noticed out of the corner of her eye, Sasuke was approaching the rock she was sitting on.  
"Good morning Uchiha," she forced herself to say.  
"Hn."  
"Hn?" Taki blinked, "What exactly does hn mean?"  
Sasuke scowled.  
"What?" she scowled back, "So sorry I demanded common courtesy. It won't happen again."  
Sasuke's scowl deepened but Taki ignored him, returning to her book's fantasy world.  
[I don't get him, he used to be so… I don't know… kind and sweet. Now he's such an ass…]

~10:51 A.M~  
She had been here for nearly five hours. Five. Freaking. Hours.  
Granted, only three more pages till she finished the book, but she'd gone through two bottles of water, gone to town to go to the bathroom and buy more water, then come back. Actually… she'd also bought some breakfast, but she wasn't going to admit that. At least not unless in a court of law.  
"Good morning."  
Sakura and Naruto leapt up and pointed at their newly arrived sensei who was smiling behind his mask.  
"YOU'RE LATE!" they roared in unison.  
"And we hadn't noticed?" Taki sighed with a huff.  
Sakura shot her the death glare which Taki ignored.  
"Right," Kakashi pulled an alarm clock from his bag and set it on a stump, pushing the button down, "I've set this alarm to go off at noon, that means you four have an hour to steal these from me," he then pulled two bells out of heaven-knows-where and dangled them in front of the companions, "Anyone who fails won't get lunch and will be tied to one of these stumps and watch me eat mine."  
Everyone sweatdropped and all stomachs but Taki's growled.  
[They should have eaten,] Taki smirked internally, [I highly doubt I'll be throwing up. I ate nearly three hours ago.]  
"I want you to use lethal force against me," Kakashi said, "Kunai and shuriken," he spied Taki's naginata on her hips, "And any other weapon are fine. Attack me as if you wanted to kill me."  
"But sensei isn't that dangerous?" Sakura cried.  
"No Sakura it's called being a ninja. What did you expect?" Taki growled, "You expect other ninja to go easy on us just because we're young? You think if we face a real ninja in combat it won't be life or death?"  
{Exactly the thinking I would expect from a child like her…"} Kakashi thought.  
"Don't worry Sakura this will be easy!" Naruto grinned, "He couldn't even dodge an eraser, he's gonna get himself killed!"  
"Ignore him," Kakashi said his eyes only on the other three, "Only the weak speak first, he is a dunce and will know so very soon."  
Naruto's eyes darkened with anger and Taki saw him twitch. He grabbed a kunai and went to swing it but in a split second, Kakashi was behind Naruto and the arm holding the kunai was now twisted up and behind his back pointed at the back of his head.  
They could all see Kakashi smile behind the mask.  
"I think I'm starting to like you guys."  
He looked from Naruto's concerned smile to Sasuke's smirk to Sakura's twitchy grin and Taki's half smile, half smirk.  
"You guys have until the count of three to hide. One. Two. Three!"

Taki gripped the tree trunk firmly between her thighs, arms holding the branch she laid on. She could see her teammates but it was hard, Sakura was under a bush and Sasuke was in a group of hedges. But to her surprise she couldn't see Naruto…  
{They've hidden themselves well,} Kakashi smiled.  
[Where is he?]  
"ALRIGHT! YOU AND ME! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!"  
[Really Naruto? Honestly?] Taki's eyebrows dropped in disbelief.  
"You know," Kakashi said looking at Naruto with a very serious eye, "Compared to your teammates… you're kind of weird."  
"The only thing weird here is your hairstyle!" Naruto roared and ran at Kakashi.  
Kakashi started reaching into his weapons pouch and Naruto froze.  
"Lesson one! The art of taijutsu!"  
[Taijutsu? Then why is he going for a weapon?] Taki's eyes widened.  
Suddenly Kakashi pulled out an orange book with big kanji across the front spelling out the words "Make Out Paradise!"  
Taki sweat dropped, [Really? We have a pervert for a sensei?]  
"Why do you have a book?" Naruto exclaimed.  
"For the same reason all people do," Kakashi smiled, "To see how it ends. Besides it's not like it matters against my opponent."  
An anger mark appeared on Naruto's forehead and he ran forward swinging wildly.  
Taki was considered a genin taijutsu expert, during her spar against Iruka-sensei she had defeated him within forty-nine seconds. None of the other genin held a candle to her in terms of close quarters, she was fast, flexible and knew exactly what she was doing and how to do it.  
And she knew that Naruto was not doing well. Each punch he threw and kick he tossed he turned his back to the way Kakashi dodged. If he was in a real fight, he'd be dead by now.  
"Exposing your back so many times is bad ninjutsu," Kakashi said appearing behind Naruto, crouched and his hands clasping his book with his fingers making the symbol of fire.  
"Naruto! Run get out of there! He could kill you!" Taki cried loudly.  
But it was too late, Kakashi thrust his fingers forward a star of joy in his eye.  
"Konohagakure's secret ninjutsu! Thousand years of death!"  
Naruto made an odd face and then suddenly went flying, screaming as he gripped his behind.  
[Wow…] she sweatdropped, [That was totally not G rated.]

(Moonlit's Note:  
Yeah seriously like who thought of that?)

Taki walked slowly through the forest searching for her teammates. She knew there was no point in blindly attacking Kakashi. She knew she was strong but how could she hope to hold up against a jonin that moved faster than she could followed with her eyes?  
So her plan was to find Sasuke or Naruto and then have the both of them work together to take down Kakashi. Sasuke was her first choice. Sakura wasn't an option.  
Taki shuddered at that thought, knowing her only option was to work with Sasuke Uchiha. Taki sighed and touched her hair, then drew herself up tall and raced off, she had no time to lose with the clock counting down and her genin rank on the line.  
"GET ME DOWN!"  
Taki looked up, bemused at Naruto. He was dangling by one leg from a rope trap, trying to cut himself down.  
"Well done Naruto," she smirked slightly, "How did you fall into that?"  
"GET ME DOWN NOW! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"  
"You're lucky he hasn't killed you yet bakka. If this was a real mission you'd be hanging there dead," her smirk turned to a scowl.  
"LEMME DOWN LEMME DOWN!"  
"Your teammate is right."  
Taki's body prickled and stiffened and she turned, Kakashi-sensei standing two feet away.  
[I never even felt him…] she hardly dared to breathe.  
"If you were on a real mission, and you yelled and screamed like that you would have been gutted," Kakashi's voice was cold, "And you would have compromised Taki coming to aid you."  
It was as if Naruto couldn't hear, because the next sentence he bellowed was, "IF YOU DON'T LET ME DOWN RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO TAKE THAT-"  
But his voice was cut off by the sound of steel splitting the air. Taki barely had a second to react as an arsenal of kunai and shuriken flew by her face, striking Kakashi's side.  
Blood splattered onto her cheek and Taki spun around, noticing Sasuke in the trees, a triumphant smirk on her face.  
"You moron!" Taki roared, "That was overkill!"  
But his face changed instantly from a smirk to horror and Taki turned back. The weapons were all stuck into a log.  
"Sasuke get out of here!" Taki warned, "He knows where you're at!"  
She heard the rustling of bushes and Sasuke disappeared from view. Taki rubbed her cheek, but there was no blood there, just a spot of sap.  
"LET ME DOWN!" Naruto howled like a wounded cat.  
"Shut up Naruto," Taki sighed and hopped up to the tree branch.  
[Sometimes having you as a friend is more trouble than it's worth…]  
"I'll cut you down Naruto, but we need to work together. There's no way we can beat him alone. If you distract him, I can run in and get our bells."  
She sliced through the rope and dropped down to her friend who was now face first in dirt.  
"Well Naruto? What do you-"  
Taki sighed, as he raced off, leaving her a cloud of dust to converse with.  
[Well… I guess I should go find Sasuke now…]

~20 Minutes Later~  
Taki leaned against a tree, letting herself catch her breath for a moment. She'd been running for almost a half hour but there'd been no sign of her egotistical teammate.  
[Where is he?] she sighed.  
"Well, well, well. Takiko Ryouko. Top female genin of the graduating class, rookie taijutsu expert and daughter of two of the greatest ANBU soldiers in Konoha's history. Yet you haven't come and attacked me yet. Why?"  
Kakashi appeared in the clearing in front of here, a smirk obvious on his hidden lips.  
"I'm a little smarter than the others," Taki returned the smirk, "I know I'm good but come on, you're a jonin."  
"Wise."  
"I never said that," she chuckled, "I'll still take you on and kick your ass."  
"Those are big words. Can you back them up?"  
"I sure can," Taki grabbed her naginata and with the flick of a wrist, extended it to full length pointing it at him, "And unlike my teammates, you'll actually have to fight me!"  
Taki flew forward, spinning her naginata and then thrusting forward, the blade striking the air where Kakashi had been only a breath earlier.  
Kakashi's eye grew wide, in a second Taki had shifted her weight and the naginata came upwards to where he was. He flipped back in midair but Taki kept on him, striking quickly, each movement precise and graceful.  
{I've got to stop defending!} Kakashi thought fiercely.  
Taki brought the naginata down towards Kakashi's head and it connected with something. The back of her sensei's glove, upon the metal plate. He grabbed the wooden shaft with the other hand and yanked, pulling it out of her hands and knocking her off balance.  
[Crap!]  
He came forward with a punch and Taki back flipped, then spun in the air at the peak of her flip and landed perfectly on her feet, arms out to balance herself.  
"Disarmed," Kakashi chuckled throwing the naginata to the side of the battlefield, "What's wrong? Can't fight now?"  
Taki smirked and snapped one of her leather gloves, "Are you kidding? Now you're really in trouble."  
"Let's see if you're as good at taijutsu as everyone says you are," Kakashi taunted.  
Taki raced forward, striking a punch that missed his nose by a hair. She went back to the offensive, her kicks and punches coming at a rapid pace.  
{She's so fast! I can see how any rookie would fall!}  
Suddenly he realized she had begun to attack solely with her feet, and he glanced at her hands but it was too late.  
"Ryuuko Herutsu! The dragon's heart!"  
Flames shaped like a legless dragon flew from her arm and slammed into Kakashi, throwing him back into a tree and wrapping itself tightly around him. Taki knew it wasn't going to last and she yanked her arm back and leapt forward as fast as she could, her fingers touched the cold steel of the bell. Just as she was about to grab it, pain split up her outer thigh and she tumbled to the ground.  
The dragon faded and there was a small pop as Kakashi disappeared. Taki looked to the side and saw a blood covered shuriken then looked the other direction where a very guilty looking Naruto stood.  
"Dammit Naruto!" Taki screamed at him.  
"Sorry," he cringed then turned and ran.  
Taki sat up cringing, the cut was deep but it wouldn't kill her.  
"That moron," Taki growled venomously.  
She reached into her hip pouch and retrieved a roll of bandages. In moments she had it firmly secured and she moved to get her naginata.  
[Well, now I **know **I can't beat him alone. Time to go find Ego.]

Taki was cringing as she walked, and the blood had made a small pool on the white bandage's surface.  
[Damn Naruto… After this mission I am going to strangle you," she made her way towards a clearing.  
[Sakura?]  
She saw the unnatural shade of bubblegum pink laying on the ground and sighed.  
"Wow Sakura."  
Taki looked around the clearing until her eyes spotted a black hair styled like a cockatoo and felt a small smirk come across her face. She walked towards the Sasuke head, bent down and tapped on it lightly like a door.  
"Is it real?" she chuckled.  
"Of course I'm real!" Sasuke snapped angrily.  
"What's wrong? Get caught in quicksand?"  
Sasuke scowled and narrowed his eyes at her.  
Taki smiled at him and put her head in her hands, "Well. If you want help getting out then you have to agree to work with me."\  
"Hell no."  
Taki's smile didn't so much as falter, "I'm sure you've noticed Kakashi-sensei is much stronger than any of us," she shifted her eyes to the dirt around his neck then back to his face, "We need to team up and beat him. We're the two top genin, so if we don't have a chance, who does?"  
"No."  
"And why not?"  
"Because last time we fought I touched a bell. I can do it alone."  
"Some team player you are," Taki snorted and stood up, "Fine. If you can do it alone then you can get out of this hole alone. Have fun."  
She took two steps until she heard Sasuke mutter, "Fine Ryouko. You win. If you get me out of here I'll work together with you and we'll beat Kakashi."  
Taki smirked and turned around, her face blank, "Good. I'll start digging then."  
Sasuke noticed her wince as she knelt back down to dig, "What happened Ryouko?"  
"Nothing _Uchiha _I'm fine. Naruto was just being a bakka."  
Sasuke scowled at her.  
Taki grabbed one of his now free hands and gave a tug. The dirt collapsed leaving him free to his waist.  
She helped pull him out and stood up straight, stretching her back as she did so.  
Sasuke on the other hand looked over at Sakura, eyes full of dismay.  
"Do you wanna wake her?" Sasuke asked.  
Taki shook her head quickly, "Oh heck no. She's your fangirl. You wake her."  
Sasuke scowled, squatted beside her and shook her slightly. Sakura's eyes flew open and she jumped onto him without a single thought of ever letting go.  
[Was she waiting for that?] Taki sweat dropped.  
"Get… Off…" Sasuke growled trying to pull her off.  
Taki snickered slightly as he finally dragged her away from him.  
Sasuke stood up abruptly and looked over at Taki.  
"Well. Let's go."  
[Holy crap. He's actually gonna keep his promise?]  
"Where are you going Sasuke?" Sakura asked leaping up also.  
"It's almost noon and I need to get a bell. I almost got one earlier, I'll get one of I try again," Sasuke replied.  
{He touched a bell? I haven't even _seen _Kakashi-sensei… there's no way I'm gonna get one!} Sakura moaned in her head.  
"Well you did say it was almost noon Sasuke! Why don't you give up and try again next year?" Sakura suggested with a smile.  
[What do you wanna like stay at the Academy forever Sakura?]  
"Give up? No…. I have to fulfill my goal… To kill him… That day… The day I cried…" Sasuke seemed almost in a trance.  
"That day I cried…" Taki echoed in a whisper.  
[We're so alike…]  
Suddenly a loud ringing interrupted her thoughts and Sasuke shook his head, snapping out of his trance.  
"Dammit," Sasuke cursed under his breath and stalked off.  
Taki frowned, [Shit. This can't be over…]  
She hurried to catch up with him as Sakura raced forward to walk beside him.

~20 Minutes Later~  
"I've decided that none of you will be sent back to the academy," Kakashi announced, looking at his new students.  
Takiko was sitting with her back against the far right pole, with Sasuke to her left and Sakura to his left. Naruto however was tied to the middle pole looking irritated.  
[What did he do now?] Taki sighed looking at her friend.  
Sakura and Naruto let out cheers at their sensei's announcement, but Taki and Sasuke exchanged looks. Kakashi couldn't be finished.  
"You should all just quit being ninja right now!"  
Sakura and Naruto fell silent instantly while their black haired teammate's faces went stony.  
"The four of you have no idea what it means to be a ninja. You're all just snot nosed little kids who are playing a game. You don't deserve to be shinobi," Kakashi's voice was frosty.  
Sasuke twitched.  
"Don't!" Taki warned grabbing at him but he was already running at Kakashi, kunai in hand.  
In a single motion Kakashi shoved Sasuke's face into the dirt, bent his kunai arm behind his back, placed his knee on his shoulder blades and held his own kunai at the boy's throat.  
"Get off Sasuke!" Sakura cried.  
"You four think you're so great. You have no idea what it means to be a real ninja… To spend every single day of your life in battle. To know that taking a breath could kill you… To have looked death in the face and known it could have been your end."  
Taki looked at the ground, she _did _know. She hadn't just stared death in the face, but seen the devil… the one who had taken it all away.  
"Sakura! Kill Naruto now or Sasuke dies!" Kakashi ordered pressing the kunai against his student's throat.  
Sakura gasped and looked at Naruto with wide eyes, while the blond haired boy looked from Sasuke to Sakura, painfully aware that she might decide to do it. Taki held her breath, it wasn't an easy choice for Sakura…  
But she never got the chance to decide, Kakashi removed his kunai from Sasuke's neck, spun it and returned it to his weapon's pouch.  
"That's what can happen in a mission. Someone is taken hostage and you have a life or death situation. Someone _will _die. You have to choose who," Kakashi's voice had darkened, "Why do you think the four of you were put into squads?"  
"How should we know? We didn't pick!" Naruto cried.  
"Think about it," Kakashi's eye glared at Naruto, "The four of you… on one team. Together."  
"Teamwork…" Taki breathed softly.  
"Exactly," his gaze turned to her, "Teamwork. Something all of you stink at."  
[We have to work as a team to take someone stronger than us down…]  
"Sakura," Kakashi's tone had changed from dark to commanding, "You were only concerned for Sasuke even though Naruto and Takiko were right in front of you. That selfishness is what costs lives," Sakura looked at the ground guiltily, "Naruto you did everything by yourself. You were determined to show up Sasuke so you were going to do everything you could, even cheat. Not to mention you caused a teammate an injury and instead of helping her like you should have, you ran off. In a real mission, Takiko would be lying in that forest dead."  
Naruto looked at his friend, who met his blue eyes levelly.  
"Sasuke," Kakashi pushed his face into the dirt a little harder, "You thought everyone was so weak that they would just slow you down. Even Takiko, who is on equal ground with you, you didn't even want to work with her. Your pride would have caused everyone injury… And Takiko. You alone figured out the answer to my test. You knew that you couldn't beat me alone so you looked for help. But… you never tried to find Sakura. You didn't even try to find her. If you had, then you might have been able to work together and beat me. But you didn't. Sakura could be dead because of that."  
Taki blinked and looked at her knees, what if she had cost her teammate her life…  
Kakashi stepped off Sasuke and walked over to a rock. Sasuke stood up, his eyes plastered to the ground as he returned to his seat beside Taki.  
"There are the names of heroes of the village in this rock… many of my closest friends are here…"  
"I want my name on there!" Naruto grinned.  
"These aren't regular ninja Naruto. These are ninja who were K.I.A."  
"That sounds cool! I wanna be K.I.A too!"  
"It means killed in action…" Taki said quietly, she knew that rock painfully well.  
Naruto instantly went silent.  
Kakashi sighed, "Very well. I will give you all one more chance. You have fifteen minutes to eat and then try to get the bells once more… except for Naruto. He doesn't get any food. If I catch anyone trying to feed him all of you will fail automatically."  
With that Kakashi tossed three boxes of food at them and left without a word.  
Taki took her bento box and started eating the sushi, although she was the only one who'd had breakfast her stomach was rumbling already.  
Only a few seconds later she heard Naruto's stomach let out a long groan.  
His teammates looked up at him.  
"It's okay! I can take this! No problem!" he grinned.  
Another moan came from his belly and Naruto frowned.  
Taki looked down at her half eaten lunch and sighed, lifting her box towards him.  
"Here."  
"Eat up."  
Taki and Sasuke looked at each other, wide eyed. They had done exactly the same thing at the exact same time.  
"B-but guys…" Naruto started.  
"Sasuke, Takiko! Kakashi-sensei said not to feed Naruto!" Sakura objected.  
"If he doesn't eat he'll be weak and we'll fail anyway," Taki shook her head.  
"Besides, I don't sense his chakra. If he eats fast we'll be fine," Sasuke agreed.  
"Well…" Sakura sighed and lifted her box to Naruto, "You guys go ahead. I'm on a diet anyway."  
"Sakura?" Naruto looked starstruck.  
"Just eat it!" Sakura urged.  
"But I can't…" Naruto looked down at his tied hands.  
"Hurry up!" Sasuke glanced around nervously.  
"Never again," Sakura growled and started feeding Naruto with her chopsticks.  
Suddenly there was a loud rumble of thunder and Taki leapt, clenching her fists tightly. The sky went dark and wind whirled around them and instantly Taki had her butterfly swords out while her body shook slightly and Sasuke had his hand on a kunai.  
"You broke the rules!" Kakashi boomed as he appeared.  
"B-b-b-b-but you said…" Naruto stuttered, too afraid to get a full sentence out.  
"Well?" Kakashi roared.  
"We're a team!" Sasuke said as calmly as he could.  
"We work together!" Taki nodded at him.  
"The four of us are one!" Sakura added.  
"Yeah what they said! Believe it!" Naruto yelled with a grin.  
"The four of you are one? That's your excuse?" the skies seemed to grow darker and more thunder rumbled.  
Taki felt her palms grow sweaty and her fingers started to ache from gripping the daggers so tight.  
As suddenly as it came, the skies grew light and Kakashi grinned behind his mask.  
"You guys… pass."  
"We… what?" Taki shakily put her daggers back into her sheaths and wiped her palms on her shorts.  
"Congratulations, you all pass. You're the first team to ever do so. All the other groups did exactly what I told them and so they all failed. In the world of ninja, those who break the rules are scum… but those who abandon their friends are even worse than scum. So Team Seven starts their first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi gave a thumbs up and smiled, "Let's go!"  
Taki, Sasuke and Sakura stood up, each with a smile or smirk set into their face.  
"Hey guys! What about me?" Naruto yelled still tied to his post.  
Taki grinned at Naruto and waved, hurrying to catch up to their sensei.  
"I KNEW IT WAS GONNA BE LIKE THIS!" Naruto yelled, "COME ON GUYS!"

~6:43 P.M~  
The sun had dipped low into the horizon and Taki looked at the Memorial Stone, orange and red reflecting in the sky behind her.\  
She ran her finger down the list of names and closed her eyes, feeling tears burn in them.  
_Aiko Ryouko  
__Kuja Ryouko  
__Itanako Ryouko  
__Dai Ryouko  
__Chou Ryouko  
__Goro Ryouko  
__Katsu Ryouko  
__Eiji Ryouko  
__Kimiko Ryouko  
__Mayu Ryouko  
__Jiro Ryouko_

The list went on… and on… and on…  
Her family… there had been names on here from her clan before the slaughter. War heroes and names who had never been heard of. But now, all but three Ryouko names were on the stone, and they had all been added on the exact same day.  
"I'm so sorry," Taki stood up and took her hand away, "I'm so sorry I couldn't save him mom…"

Moonlit's Note~  
I'm so sorry I havent uploaded in so long. Seems like I say this alot. I PROMISE I will start uploading more frequently from now on. You're all allowed to pelt me with rice balls and Pocky if I don't keep my promise. I'll be attempting to upload three times a week for the remainder of December and beginning of January (I've been working on TOLICEH, but snow and bad cable has kept me from the internet and uploading, I'm almost at Scroll 30) plus there are two specials coming up. A Christmas Special and a New Years special, which will be uploaded on Dec 24-25th and Dec 31st-Jan 1st (unsure of which days as of right now). Also the polls are still open for my Apology Special. I'll post the current votes and REAL deadline sometime this week.  
Much thanks to all my beautiful wonderful readers!

Also. I'm linking this story to my DeviantArt and my profile will also be linked to my DeviantArt, so if you want to share anything with me go ahead! =D I love to hear from my readers!


	7. Scroll 5: Escorting A Drunk!

Scroll 5; Escorting A Drunk!

"Sasuke here at Point C."  
"Sakura in position at Point A."

"Naruto here at Point D."  
"Taki at Point B. Naruto, don't take so long to respond!"  
"Well…"  
"Quiet down or you'll scare the target," Kakashi's voice came through the headset, "Do any of you see the target?"  
"Fifteen meters from my position," Sasuke said.  
"Twenty from mine," Sakura agreed.  
"Ten away from me," Taki said.  
"Five here," Naruto said.  
"Good, move in," Kakashi ordered.  
In a flash their four shadows leapt into the clearing all aimed for their target.  
"I've got it! I got it- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto squealed in their ears.  
"Oh God!" Taki winced pulling her headset out of her ear.  
"Is that the target?" Kakashi asked.  
"Yep, it has the ribbon on its left ear," Sasuke nodded observing their target.  
"Good, mission complete!"  
"I HATE CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS!" Naruto's high pitched squeals only aggravating the frightened cat.  
"Stop that Naruto!" Taki scolded and reached over, hefting the fat cat up into her arms and softly stroking it's head, "You're scaring the poor thing."  
For a moment the cat hissed but then settled into her soothing touch and snuggled into her arms while Taki ran her fingers through the cat's soft fur.  
"Looks like you've got a knack with animals Taki, he actually likes you," Kakashi smiled.  
Naruto stood up and went to pet the cat but it's hackles went straight up and the cat hissed, launching itself off Taki's shoulder and back onto Naruto's face claws extended.  
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

~1 Hour Later~  
Taki watched with a sweat drop as the cat stared at her with a 'help me' face as it's owner, a very large lady with an obviously large amount of money squeezed it tightly, rubbing her face into the cat.  
[Poor cat…] Taki didn't like cats, they smelled and weren't at all sociable, but this poor cat didn't deserve that, [I'd have run away too.]  
"Looks like you completed your mission," the Hokage said as Team 7 stood in front of his desk.  
"Yeah well when I could do it in my sleep…" Taki muttered.  
Kakashi flicked her behind the ear and she winced, turned and glared at her sensei.  
"Well we have many more missions for you," the Hokage ignored her, "You could babysit, do gardening, grocery shop…"  
"Don't you have anything besides those gay missions?" Naruto yelled.  
"WHAT?" Iruka yelled his eyeballs huge.  
"The mission our group gets assigned are boring!" Naruto drawled.  
"You moron!" Iruka stood up with a growl, "Everyone starts out with easy D-ranked missions and you're only genin!"  
"Iruka said it exactly," the Hokage sighed, "All genin start with D ranked missions, as you get to be a stronger ninja you will get C and possibly B ranked missions because they are harder. When you're a jonin you will regularly get B's and A's."  
"So yesterday I had beef ramen… and today I'm thinking I should have miso, you know a change of pace," Naruto was saying to the team who were all nodding in agreement.  
"Would you listen to me?" the Hokage was getting upset.  
"I am so sorry Hokage-sama," Kakashi sweatdropped.  
{I am so getting in trouble for this later…} Kakashi sighed.  
"Lectures, lectures, lectures! That's all I ever get from you old man!" Naruto yelled, hopping forward until he was a few feet away from the Hokage, "I'm not a little kid anymore, I don't play pranks and stupid tricks, I don't goof around! I'm a ninja and I want a ninja mission!"  
Taki took a step forward, "I agree. How are we expected to grow up and be the warriors you'll need us to be soon if you give us nothing more than the chores regular kids our age do."  
Naruto looked at her with a happy smile.  
"You bakkas…" Iruka growled clenching his fist.  
"No Iruka," the Hokage shook his head, "They're right. Naruto's trying to show us that he's grown up and Taki's given a very valid point. How can we expect these ninja, however low a grade they are to be a fighter if we can't let them grow up? Alright you win. I'll give you a C-ranked mission."  
Everyone on the Team stared at the Hokage in absolute shock, especially Kakashi.  
"You will be escorting someone to the Land of Waves," the Hokage continued.  
"Who? Who?" Naruto cried in excitement, "A lord? Or… or is it a princess?"  
Taki sighed at his enthusiasm, there were times she wondered why they were friends. He drove her nuts.  
"Bring him in please," the Hokage requested.  
Everyone turned to the door behind them as it swung open. A man at least in his fifties, his cheeks pink and glasses crooked, swaying as he took a large swig from his sake bottle.  
Taki sweatdropped, [You're kidding right? We have to escort this drunkard?]  
Sasuke glared at her as if to say 'thanks for getting us into this.'  
She scowled at him.  
"These brats are bringing me home?" the man growled, "They don't even look like ninja."  
Taki felt a surge of anger and scowled.  
"What are they going to do? Play with me and keep me entertained for the trip? I'm a bridge builder and I need to be _protected _while I'm doing my work. They look weak… especially that short one with the stupid grin on his face."  
"What stupid one?" Naruto asked with a grin.  
Without so much as a word the team lined up, shortest to tallest. Sakura was at least an inch and a half taller than Naruto, Taki was a good four inches taller than Sakura and Sasuke was a tiny bit taller than Takiko.  
"SAY WHAT?" it dawned on Naruto he'd been insulted and he looked angry, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"  
Just as Naruto started to run forward Taki leapt forward and tackled him to the ground, sitting on his back to stop him from killing the drunkard.  
"You bakka!" Taki growled, "You're not supposed to kill the mission!"

~7:09 P.M~

Taki sat on her rooftop staring at the setting sun. It was beautiful. She loved the way paint strokes of ruby red, grapefruit pink, sunshine yellow and pastel blue would sweep across the sky, moving every time the sun moved down a little more. It was the most beautiful sight in the world for her. Especially with the moon slowly appearing in the sky. According to all the stories she'd heard from friends of her parents her mom and her dad would sit together for hours at night after they'd put their children to bed and talk. Her father would paint while her mother gardened.  
Taki loved to look at the sky at night, to close her eyes and imagine her parents were in the kitchen, sometimes their laughter would echo in her ears. She would go downstairs and even though her parents had never lived in this house she expected to see them at the kitchen table sharing hot cocoa or throwing soap suds at each other.  
She would think that once she crawled into bed, her father would come in a few minutes into her starting to fall asleep and kiss her forehead and her mother would turn off the lights. Sometimes… she would wake up and walk down the hall towards her parent's room… and she would walk into her bathroom. And all it meant was she was alone in the world. Just like she had been for the past five years. With a loud sigh Taki turned, climbed off her perch and headed downstairs to bed.

~6:14 A.M~

Taki stood by the village gates, pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she did her stretches. For once that morning, she hadn't gotten up early enough to stretch like she did every morning. And since no one else was there and she was hoping for some action on the mission she figured now was just as good a time as any. Just as Taki was dropping down into side splits she saw Sasuke coming down the road.  
"Good morning," Taki said.  
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked arching an eyebrow.  
"Stretching."  
He cringed, "Looks painful."  
"Not anymore."  
They were silent for a few minutes, Taki came out of the splits and sat on a nearby rock looking at the greenish-blue sky.  
[I hope there's lots of action on this mission.]  
Not even five minutes later Sakura trotted up the road, perked up when she noticed Sasuke and hurried over to him gabbing at his ear.  
Taki smiled slightly at his scowl, [I almost feel bad for him.[  
Suddenly Naruto came barreling up the road yelling a voice that would wake the dead.  
"A C-RANKED MISSION! THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!" Naruto roared.  
"Naruto, it's not even seven in the morning, how is it possible to have that much energy?" Taki rolled her eyes and sighed.  
Just as Naruto opened his mouth wide to answer Kakashi appeared with Tazuna right behind him, sake in hand like usual.  
"Is everyone ready to go?" Kakashi asked looking at the Team.  
Taki leapt off the rock as her jaw dropped, "Holy crap!"  
Kakashi stiffened and looked around him, "What?"  
"You're not late! This is some kind of miracle!"  
Kakashi relaxed and smiled, "There's no time to relax on a mission like this! Now are you all set?"  
Everyone nodded and Kakashi took the lead, the team following behind.  
"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Naruto screamed so loudly it hurt her ears.  
She popped him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him slightly and then growled, "Can you shut up? You're too loud!"  
"Really Naruto you are!" Sakura agreed.  
"How come you're so excited anyway?" Taki asked.  
"This is the first time I've left the village!"  
Taki nodded and looked away staring at the side of the path.  
She could make out the outline of an old forgotten trail covered now in brambles and plants… but it was still there. For a moment she saw a little girl limping down that path, covered in blood with her baby sister in one arm, younger sister's hand gripped in hers and a bloody naginata on her back, the glow of flames lit up behind her. That girl was making her way to Konoha, the only chance of surviving…  
"Ryouko," Sasuke said, "Come on let's go."  
Taki blinked and it was gone turned to her teammates and saw they were still moving while she'd stopped. Taki ran to catch up, jumping over a little puddle and coming to a stop beside Sasuke. It was quiet for a long time but for once the silence was comfortable.  
"Sensei," Sakura said finally breaking the silence, "Doesn't the Land of Waves have ninja too?"  
Taki turned her head to look at Kakashi who was bringing up the rear.  
"Well no. Although different hidden villages have ninja the Land of Waves doesn't because they are completely surrounded by water and fog. It protects them so there's no need for shinobi."  
Sakura nodded and sighed as they all looked straight ahead.  
"Ryouko," Sasuke said softly.  
Taki looked up from her feet and to Sasuke, "Yes?"  
Just as Sasuke was about to say something there was the soft clink of shuriken combined with a loud clang of chains. Taki and Sasuke spun around, each already holding a weapon.  
Kakashi was wrapped in a shuriken chain from top to bottom, he struggled to pull free as the men dressed entirely in black grinned.  
"One little piggy!" one man shouted.  
The two yanked on the chain and in a single move, Kakashi was in pieces and the ninja were gone.  
"Sensei!" Naruto and Sakura cried.  
[Shit!]  
"Next one," said one of the ninja with a smirk.  
They appeared behind Naruto and Taki spun but Sasuke was ready he hurled a shuriken catching their chain and forcing it back to the tree and then hurled a kunai into the middle of the shuriken.  
"My turn," Taki smirked and leapt forward her feet on either ninja's glove hands against the tree, "Mind I take these off for you?"  
She threw her feet back into their faces shattering their bonds to the chain while she dropped to the ground and grabbed a butterfly dagger, Kaji.  
The ninja gawked surprised for a moment and then disappeared, one ninja appearing near Naruto, his claw extended.  
"Naruto!" Taki cried and raced forward.  
She saw Sasuke stop and turn to Sakura and just as the ninja slashed at Naruto with his claws Taki pushed Naruto to the ground, feeling a sharp pain graze across her forearm but just barely. The other ninja's shuriken… Taki spun out a roundhouse kick catching his cheek then dropped to her hands and knees and threw him out with a side kick to the stomach. Then she saw the other ninja racing towards Sakura and Tazuna.  
Taki blinked and then moved towards them but she'd never make it in time.  
"Sasuke! Help Sakura!"  
Sasuke ran in and stood between Sakura and the ninja ready to strike. A mix of instinct and genuine concern too over and Taki lunged, reaching for the ninja's cape but she lost her footing and something knocked her to the ground.  
"What the hell?" Taki growled sitting up.  
Kakashi was holding the ninja she had been about to grab, while the other one was under his arm unconscious.  
"Kakashi-sensei! You're alive!" Sakura exclaimed in relief.  
Both Sasuke and Taki looked at each other annoyed at the interruption.  
"Naruto…" Kakashi looked over at the blond boy still on the ground, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you sooner but there was something I had to know."  
Kakashi turned to face you and Sasuke, "Good job Sasuke, Taki. You two work well together."  
From the ground Taki started to scoot away, the thought of working well with Sasuke sent chills up her spine.  
"I couldn't do anything!" Naruto yelled.  
Everyone looked at Naruto who was quivering with rage, "Why am I so different? Taki and Sasuke didn't freeze up! They didn't even flinch! They fought… they fought together without hesitation or fear… And it was their first battle… just like me…"  
"Naruto…" Taki stood up and walked over to comfort her friend, giving him a small smile, "No it wasn't. I've fought before…"  
Naruto looked at her for a moment as if he might calm down his blue eyes matching her green ones with sadness.  
"Hey…" Sasuke said.  
Naruto glanced over at the raven haired boy.  
"Are you alright… you big scaredy cat?"  
Naruto clenched his fists in rage.  
"Sasuke! You didn't have to say that you ass! That was uncalled for," Taki yelled turning away from Naruto to glare at her other male teammate.  
Naruto started to lunge at Sasuke but Kakashi halted him by yelling his name.  
"Those ninja's claws were soaked in poison, that scratch on your hand means there's poison in your system and we need to reopen the wound and pour it out or it will spread through your body."  
Naruto glared at his hand as if it had just betrayed his biggest secret.  
"Tazuna, I need to speak with you," Kakashi said as he tied the two ninja to a tree.  
"Wait how did you know?" one of the ninja called out.  
Now that they weren't trying to kill them Taki could tell they were Chunnins from the Hidden Mist village.  
"It was obvious," Kakashi didn't even turn back to them, "A puddle on a sunny morning like this? When it hasn't rained in a week?"  
"If you knew then how come you let these brats deal with them?" Tazuna asked swigging his sake eyes narrowed.  
[What an ass…]  
"I hid so I could see who exactly they were after. If they were just common ninja trying to mess around or if they were actually after someone," Kakashi said his eye staring at the man.  
"In our mission description there was no mention anyone was coming after you. If we had known that this would be a B-ranked mission," Kakashi continued, "I'm sure you have your reasons but we'd have sent a higher caliber of ninja on this sort of mission."  
"More skilled ninja could have done it," Sakura agreed, "We're not ready for this!"  
"Speak for yourself…" Taki rolled her eyes.  
Sakura glared and kept speaking, "We're just genin… we can't do this mission!"  
"Excuse me, but when did you become the official speaker of this team?" Taki growled.  
Sakura scowled but continued again, "Besides we need to get Naruto back. He needs to go to a hospital so they can treat his wounds."  
"She is probably right…" Kakashi agreed, "We do need to get back and treat Naruto."  
"NO!"  
Everyone turned just in time to see Naruto drive a kunai into his right hand, blood squirting everywhere.  
"Why… why am I always so different? I should be stronger than this! I stayed up late every night and got up early every morning! I practiced jutsu after jutsu!"  
The blood was running down his hand so fast it was forming a little puddle on the ground.  
"I'm not ever going to need saving! I am never gonna chicken out again and I won't try to run! I won't lose to Taki or Sasuke! I swear by the pain in my hand I will never back down!"  
Naruto smirked, "This mission is still on!"  
Taki gave a soft smile, [Such an inspirational speaker…. Good luck trying to beat me though.]  
Kakashi slid up beside Naruto smiling, "Naruto, it's really cool how you go the poison out and everything… but if you lose anymore blood you'll die."  
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?" Naruto turned a deathly white and started freaking out running around gripping his hand.  
Taki sweatdropped and then smiled, there was something infectious about that boy.  
"Ryouko, are you aware your arm is bleeding?"  
Taki turned and saw the graze where that shuriken had cut.  
"Hm," Taki reached into her medicine bag and pulled out some bandages.  
She started to wrap it but one handed wrapping was hard.  
"Here," Sasuke took the bandages and wrapped it for her.  
She blinked at him.  
[Am I dying or something? Why the heck is Sasuke being nice? It's so unlike him.]  
"You two ready to go?" Kakashi asked.  
Taki blinked realizing Sasuke was done tying the bandages and just standing there.  
She leapt around and stuffing the bandages back into her bag she nodded.  
"Let's go!"

Taki had her head laying on the edge of the boat, fingers in the cool soft moving water. She smiled as tiny fish tried to nibble her finger, bumping and nipping with no success.  
Out of the corner of her eye Taki saw Sasuke watching her so she sat up keeping her fingers in water and smiled at him.  
Of course he just turned to face Kakashi who sat on the other side of him.  
Taki rolled her eyes and watched the waves lap lazily at the boat as if they didn't have a care in the world. A huge dark shadow loomed over the bridge, almost too dark to see anything inside of it Taki bet.  
"That is a big bridge," Taki gave a low whistle.  
"If we pass beyond this bridge we'll be at the Land of Waves," Tazuna's friend who was rowing said.  
"ITS HUGE!" Naruto cried out.  
"Hey be quiet!" the man growled as they slipped under the bridge, "We're using this mist as cover!"  
[Dumb ass…]  
Suddenly she felt someone's hand against hers and rolled her eyes, [It's probably Sakura thinking I'm Sasuke. Boy is she going to get a surprise when we get out of this shadow…]  
For a moment she considering _changing _into Sasuke but they were out of the shadow and she looked over at Pinky who's hands where in her lap.  
Then she looked at Sasuke, sure enough he was staring up into space not paying attention to where he was keeping his hands.  
[Well at least no one's looking.]  
"Tazuna, before we reach your home there is something I have to ask you."  
Everyone looked to Kakashi as he spoke.  
"You have to tell me the reason those ninja were after you or I will call off this mission the moment we reach shore."  
Tazuna sighed, "Then I guess I must tell you… No… I _want _to tell you. A very powerful man is after my life… you may have heard of him. Marine Transportation Gatoh."  
"Gatoh?" Kakashi's eye wide, "As in the very Gatoh from the Gatoh company?"  
"Isn't he like a billionare?" Taki asked.  
"Who?" Naruto asked cluelessly.  
Tazuna explained, "He's the president of a large marine transportation… or so he wants you to believe. Gatoh really uses gangs and ninja to smuggle drugs and combatant goods, that and he takes over other companies and countries. A year ago he came to the Land of Waves and using wealth and violence as a shield he took over this country's sea transportation."  
"So for a country like the Land of Waves…" Taki pieced it together, "Controlling the sea means you control the country right?"  
Tazuna nodded, "You rule over the wealth, politics and people of the island. But the one thing Gatoh fears is completing that bridge."  
"Because that cuts off his ability to control," Taki said, "And with you being the bridge builder, you're the number one target right?"  
"So those ninja were sent by Gatoh to eliminate you," Sasuke glanced at Taki.  
"Exactly," Kakashi agreed, "But I don't understand. He's a very powerful man that uses strong ninja… so why would you hide that information? You would have not only received higher class ninja but Konoha would have been prepared to send many more than us."  
Tazuna looked at his feet, "The Land of Waves is a very poor country now, Gatoh hordes the money so we simply didn't have the money to pay for an expensive ranked mission. And if you quit the mission after we land… well I'll be killed almost immediately… but of course it won't be your fault so don't worry… but my eight-year-old grandson will grow up with no grandfather and cry every night. My daughter will hate Konoha for the rest of her lonely life… but don't blame yourselves."  
Tazuna put his head in his hands but Taki could see he was watching.  
[That old geezer is guilt tripping us,] Taki twitched.  
Good thing Taki lacked a conscious.  
Kakashi sighed and rubbed the back of is neck, "Well… I suppose we have no choice… we will continue to escort you."  
Taki sweatdropped and shook her head.  
"Wonderful!" Tazuna grinned.  
"We're here," Tazuna's friend interrupted as the bow of the boat bumped shore and everyone but his friend piled out.  
"This is as far as I go," the man said smiling at the bridge builder.  
"I understand," Tazuna nodded, "Thank you for taking such a big risk."  
His friend nodded and rowed away.  
"Okay," Tazuna turned to the team, "Take me home safely."

3:14 P.M

Taki watched her feet as the group walked, what more was there to do? She was already tired of walking and was praying that they would reach Tazuna's house very soon.  
[They sent chunnin and Sasuke and I stopped them easily… does that mean we've got chunnin skills? I mean sure I fought Iruka-sensei but it wasn't life or death, he was holding back.]  
Suddenly Naruto barreled past Taki and Sasuke stopped, looked around with his hand against his eyebrows and suddenly jumped.  
"Over there!" Naruto yelled hurling a kunai into the bushes.  
When nothing happened Naruto shrugged, "Oh it must have been a mouse."  
"You moron!" Taki yelled, "There's nothing there!"  
"Naruto please don't use your weapons so carelessly, they can be a _teensy _bit dangerous," Kakashi reasoned.  
"You stupid little dwarf," Tazuna grumbled.  
For a moment they were silent and then Naruto did that weird jump again and threw another kunai.  
"I sense someone!"  
"Bakka!" Sakura punched Naruto in the head, "I told you to knock it off!"  
Taki blinked and walked over to the bush, [Well he did sense something.]  
She hefted the quivering white rabbit up and into her arms, noticing how fat the thing was.  
"Well done Naruto you moron. You sensed a rabbit."  
"Oh!" Naruto cried snatching the rabbit and cuddling him, "I'm so sorry Mr. Rabbit!"  
Taki blinked at the bunny. Her father, besides being a brilliant mathematician and commander had a passion for animals and had taught Taki at a young age about all of the animals. She had carried on studying them through books and such, considering she wanted to do what most Ryouko did when they felt they were ready, find a wild animal and turn it into a companion.  
Winter was gone, it was already March and there was no way that rabbit should have been white. They lost that color as spring came so they wouldn't stand out… unless…  
"DUCK!" Kakashi ordered.  
Everyone did as he commanded except Taki, she turned and saw a giant metal spinning thingy flying at her. In a second she dropped backwards, feeling her body hit the ground a little painfully as the object flew over her. She hopped up as her sensei did and looked, a giant sword was stuck into a tree but now with a man standing upon it. Taki held Mizu in one hand and Kaji in the other, ready for battle.  
"Well, well, well," Kakashi stood in front of Taki but off to the side, "If it isn't Momoichi Zabuza, the exiled ninja of the Land of Waves."  
[That name… why is it familiar?]  
Naruto ran forward ready to fight but Kakashi put his arm out stopping him, "No Naruto. This man is a totally different league to all of you. Stay back. All of you."  
Everyone was silent, taking the standard defensive position around Tazuna.  
"Well," Kakashi finally spoke, "If I must face you I might just use this."  
Kakashi grabbed his headband and started to lift it from his eye.  
"So you are Kakashi, the Sharingan user…" Zabuza smirked.  
[The Sharingan?] Taki looked over at Sasuke, [Only the Uchiha have that… how does Kakashi…?]  
Zabuza looked past Kakashi and towards Tazuna, "Say if you hand over the geezer I'll spare your life."  
"Everyone," Kakashi commanded, "Stand your ground. Do not join the battle, protect Tazuna."  
Everyone watched as Kakashi lifted his headband revealing a scarred eye, blood red in iris with three black commas… Taki had been around the Uchiha's all her life until four years ago and she knew the Sharingan when she saw it.  
"I'm honored I finally get to fight the Sharingan ninja I've heard so much about," Zabuza smirked behind his bandages.  
"You guys say continually say 'Sharingan', 'Sharingan' but what is it?" Naruto cried.  
"The Sharingan is a power in the eye that is generated through the pupils, some ninja who use the Sharingan are said to see through all genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu and cancel their affects… but that's not the only ability the Sharingan possesses," Sasuke explained his eyes on Kakashi.  
[I can't help but notice he didn't mention that it only ran through the Uchiha clan…]  
"You're quite right… but you only scratched the surface," Zabuza chuckled, "The frightening part of the Sharingan is that it can understand how the opponents technique works and then copy it."  
Suddenly the beautiful sunny sky started to cloud up, fog surrounded them in a thick haze.  
"When I was in the Hidden Village of the Mist's assassination squad, your information was listed in a bingo book I carried that asked for your capture. The man who had copied over a thousand techniques… Kakashi the mirror ninja."

Taki looked at Kakashi in disbelief.  
[Our sensei?]  
"Wow!" Naruto exclaimed with a smile.  
"Enough with the chit chat… I'm here to kill the old man and I won't spend all day doing it."  
The genin tensed, Naruto who was guarding the left grabbed a shuriken, Sakura at the back gripped a kunai, Taki at the right held Mizu tightly while Sasuke stood at the front kunai also in hand.  
But Kakashi stood in front of all of Team 7, body obviously tensed and ready to guard the team.  
"It looks like I'll have to kill you first Kakashi," Zabuza chuckled.  
With a single pull of the arms Zabuza yanked the sword from the tree and leapt backwards, doing a double flip in the air to land upon the water in the lake in front of the clearing.  
"He's standing on water!" Sakura gasped.  
"Thank you Caption Obvious," Taki's sarcasm dripped from her lips.  
Zabuza made a handsign with one hand, his right arm straight up, water beginning to circle around him like a sandstorm made of water.  
{He's embedding his chakra into the water,} Kakashi obvserved.  
"Mist concealment."  
The fog thickened abruptly, suddenly the air felt heavy and Taki lifted her hand in front of her face but she could only barely see the outline.  
"Sensei… who is he…?" Sakura whispered.  
"His name is Momoichi Zabuza, he was once part of the ANBU team for Hidden Village of the Mist and is a master of the 'silent killing' techniques," Kakashi replied.  
Naruto muttered something Taki didn't quite hear.  
"It's a killing technique that is executed in a flash and completely silent. You'll be dead before you realize what happened. I cannot use the full power of my Sharingan against him so I advise none of you let your guard down. But if we fail all we lose is our lives."  
Taki glared at Kakashi, "Thanks sensei. I feel so much better now."  
Suddenly Taki realized the mist was even denser now. It felt like she was swimming in water and she couldn't see her own feet. Sasuke's arm brushed hers and she could feel he was shaking, as much as she was, except she kept it inside a cool interior mask.  
"Eight points," Zabuza's voice surrounded them.  
"Wh…what?" Sakura's voice quaked.  
"Spine, liver, collarbone, jugular vein, larynx, kidney, lungs and heart… which vital area would you like to be hit at?"  
Taki felt a rush of chakra sweep over their team and someone suddenly grabbed her wrist. Taki turned her head and saw Sasuke holding her tightly, his shaking hand causing her arm to shake also.  
[Sasuke…] Taki pulled her wrist free and grabbed his hand, giving him a soft reassuring smile.  
He looked at her and she could see the fear in his eyes, but what scared her was the way he pointed the kunai at himself.  
"Sasuke!"  
The two of them broke their gaze with each other and looked at Kakashi.  
"Don't worry, I'll protect all of you with my life, I won't let anyone on my team die."  
Taki's fingers threaded into his and squeezed his palm tightly, his body steadily stopped shaking and she made her own body relax.  
"Don't be so sure!" Zabuza taunted.  
In a second Taki felt Zabuza's chakra behind her and she spun but it was too late, he stood between them and Tazuna.  
"This is the end!" Zabuza roared and swung his sword.  
Taki leapt back, breaking her grip on Sasuke's hand but Kakashi moved a moment faster stabbing a kunai into Zabuza's stomach, but only water leaked out.  
[A water clone?]  
Taki turned to her sensei.  
"Sensei look out!" Taki warned.  
Kakashi turned as the Zabuza clone turned into a puddle but the real Zabuza was behind their sensei and slammed him with his sword.  
"Sensei no!" Sakura cried.  
Taki however held her breath and stood straighter as water splashed against her leg.  
"This is the end," Kakashi smirked appearing behind Zabuza, kunai at his neck.


	8. Scroll 6: I'll Protect You With My Life!

Moonlit's Note~ Day two in the Four Part (Christmas Special) Special! A daily upload finally finished with a Christmas Special on Christmas Eve! After this week is over, I'm going to resume updating twice a week (I'm going for Tuesday and Friday) since I'll be resuming school and busy with preparing costumes for an upcoming convention. Also, because I think it will be easier for my readers, I've uploaded a poll for the Birthday Special that I intend on doing soon. That being said, so far from PM's, emails and reviews the votes stand like this.

Lemon Related To Story- 8  
Lemon Unrelated To Story- 1  
Chakrathon- 3  
Special Holidays- 2

I would very much appreciate votes for this. The deadline of ALL entries will be January 31st, 2011. Then depending upon the final vote I will post a release date at that time.

~Thank you for reading! Carry on! =D

The Water Country, A Battle To The Death!

Scroll 6; I'll Protect You With My Life!

"_This is the end," Kakashi smirked appearing behind Zabuza, kunai at his neck._

Zabuza chuckled, "You think so huh?"  
Taki tensed.  
"I don't think you understand Kakashi, you can't defeat me with those cheap tricks. You hid in the mist and watched as your clone distracted me," Zabuza said, "But like I said you can't defeat me."  
A third Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi and swung his massive sword as the second clone turned to water.  
[How many clones does he have?]  
Kakashi ducked the blade and the sword struck the ground sticking into the soft earth. Zabuza struck out with his foot kicking Kakashi into the river. For a moment Zabuza looked at Taki and he could see the flash of fear that struck through her normal mask that she could keep.  
Zabuza yanked his sword from the ground and ran towards Kakashi, halting as he got to the shore of the river before flipping back onto the water.  
Taki blinked at the way their sensei was moving his arms in the water, it looked thicker than water should look. But with the thick fog that had only barely faded it was impossible to tell if it was her or her eyes.  
"Fool!" Zabuza appeared beside Kakashi, "Water Prison no Jutsu!"  
{Damn!} Kakashi turned to run but it was too late, with a single handseal Zabuza had created an orb of water that turned into a prison.  
{Retreating into the water was a giant mistake!} Kakashi realized as he tried to push the walls of the water.  
"You should make yourself comfortable Kakashi, you might be in there a while since my prison is inescapable. You'll just wear yourself out if you try to move around much. We can finish our fight later," Zabuza turned to face Team 7, his hand still sealing the orb, "But first I have to get rid of these little brats."  
"Water Clone no Jutsu!" Zabuza yelled making a handsign.  
[Damn!] Taki leapt off her butt as a water clone began to appear and speak.  
"You four wear those headbands as if you were real ninja. But you have no idea what being a true ninja is. A true ninja is someone who has faced death so many times that you no longer blink when it comes to you. To put it bluntly, once you're good enough to be in my bingo book, only them may you have the honor of calling yourself a ninja."  
[He makes too many assumptions… he thinks we're just snot nosed brats who's only training comes from a sparring ring…] Taki scowled.  
Suddenly Zabuza disappeared and Taki spun just as Naruto gave a cry. Zabuza slammed Naruto in the head and the blond flew back his headband flying off and next to Zabuza.  
"All of you are just brats!" Zabuza snapped slamming his foot down onto the headband rubbing it into the dirt.  
[I've got to do something…] Taki looked around, [What the hell do I do?]  
Her first instinct was to try and take him on head on, but something told her that it was the worst idea she'd ever had. She looked at the tree line he stood next to, she could try and sneak around him but it seemed like the second worst idea. Not that she didn't think she could stop him, but it left her team wide open… besides she had such minimal combat experience she had no idea for sure that she could stop him.  
"You guys have to run!" Kakashi yelled, "You cannot fight him!"  
Taki growled, [Run? Run where? Wherever we go he'll follow…]  
Suddenly Zabuza raced forward towards Taki. She had a second to react and leapt back trying to avoid his fist. The moment she landed he came at her again so Taki spun under his fist and brought her foot up towards his chin, but he was fast and grabbed her ankle pulling her off the ground. She used her second foot to kick his jaw and in a split second he had her by the throat and there wasn't a thing she could do.  
"Taki!" Sakura cried.  
"You may be a brat but at least you have guts," Zabuza smirked.  
Taki smirked as she felt herself weaken, reached into her weapon pouch but the flap felt too strong for her.  
"Take Tazuna and run!" Kakashi ordered, "As long as he has me sealed he can't move! Clones cannot stray far from their original bodies!"  
Sasuke looked between Kakashi and Taki who was still struggling with Zabuza's iron grip, {Run? What's the point? Zabuza will kill Kakashi and then chase us. Not to mention… now he might have Taki…}  
"We have nothing left to do but fight!" Sasuke yelled.  
He grabbed a shuriken and flung them at Zabuza's arm. In a quick movement Zabuza hurled Taki into a nearby tree and dodged the shuriken. Taki cried out gripping her ribs and turned her head slightly just in time to see Zabuza pulling Sasuke out from underneath his foot and hurled him towards Taki.  
"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked gasping for air.  
"I think so…" she whispered, "How are we supposed to stop him?"  
Sasuke just shrugged his face even more serious than usual.  
Zabuza raced towards Sasuke and Taki, she jumped back but realized her teammate was in danger and quickly made handsigns.  
"Seika Kakumau!" Taki yelled, "The Sacred Shield of Light!"  
Zabuza's blade bounced off the shield and Taki cried out as his strength broke her jutsu, causing her to fly back.  
"Leave him alone!" Taki yelled and hurled kunai at Zabuza.  
But Zabuza had Sasuke in his sights and wasn't going to stop until he got him.  
Taki raced forward and suddenly saw Zabuza getting ready to attack him again. But Taki wasn't going to let that happen and tackled him out of the way, realizing that the sword was going to hit him and she'd never get another shield done in time. But a searing pain tore through her hip as she landed face first in the dirt. Sasuke sat up slightly, trying to lift her up as she gripped the wound.  
"Sasuke!" Sakura cried, " Taki!"  
As he lifted her up using her shoulders she gave him soft thanks and looked at her hip to examine her wound. It didn't look terribly deep but it was bleeding heavily.  
Then out of the corner of her eye she saw Naruto racing towards Zabuza.  
"Naruto no!" Taki cried.  
In a few seconds Naruto was blast back at their group and Sakura was ready with a lecture.  
"What were you thinking? Not even Sasuke or Taki could do anything against him!"  
Naruto shakily got to his knees, headband in hand.  
[He went back for his headband…]  
He stood up and tied his headband back around his forehead as he spoke, "Hey you! Freak with no eyebrows, why don't you put this in your bingo book? This ninja standing in front of you now, he will become the greatest Hokage of the Leaf Village! Uzumaki Naruto!"  
[Naruto…] Taki smiled forcing herself to stand.  
"Sasuke, Takiko, I've got an idea," Naruto grinned.  
"Oh yeah?" Taki smirked.  
"I have a plan."  
"So we're finally going to do some teamwork?" Sasuke also smirked.  
"Let's do it!"

Taki stood right behind Zabuza, staring him down from behind.  
"_Okay Taki, I need you to distract the Zabuza clone."  
_"_How big of a distraction?"  
_"_Five minutes."  
_"_I can do that."  
_"Hey Zabuza," Taki called and the clone turned towards her, "Let's do it."  
The clone chuckled and Kakashi yelled out from his orb.  
"What are you doing Taki? This fight was over the moment I was caught! I told you to run away!"  
"Such a brat, you honestly think you can fight me?" Zabuza smirked at her pained expression and how she held all her weight on her right side, "Especially with an injury like that?"  
Taki just looked at him expressionless, keeping her face clear of any signs of fear.  
"Has it slipped your mind that our mission is to protect Zabuza?" Kakashi looked pissed.  
"Has it slipped your mind… we might also want to live?" Taki growled.  
Taki heard Tazuna talk from in front of her, behind Zabuza.  
"I got myself into this, and I'm not going to say that I deserve to live so much that I would stop you from protecting yourselves and your sensei. Fight as you must!"  
"Hear that?" Sasuke smirked over at Kakashi.  
"You ready?" Taki said to Zabuza's clone.  
Zabuza's clone chuckled, "You brats haven't learned have you? Are you going to continue playing ninja? I mean when I was your age, my hands were already stained red with blood."  
[What…?] Taki stepped back slightly.  
"The Devil Zabuza…" Kakashi whispered.  
"So you've heard of me?" the real Zabuza said.  
"I have too…" Taki said, eyes clouding with realization, "Many years ago, the Village Hidden in the Mist was also known as Blood Mist Village. It was called so because of the final exam taken to be a ninja…"  
The clone smirked at her, "So you've heard about the graduation exam too have you?"  
"The graduation exam?" Naruto echoed.  
"Yes," Zabuza responded, "Fights to the death with other students. Friends who had eaten at the same table as you, trained with you… friends who had shared their dreams with you. They were to fight against each other in battles to the death."  
"That's terrible," Sakura whispered.  
Taki couldn't imagine it. Spending four years of her life with her friends and then in order to be a ninja, she would have had to kill them. Kill Shikamaru. Choji… Hinata… Naruto… even Sasuke. Taki glanced over at Sasuke who stood, looking a little pained but his white face was serious. As much as he irritated her, she did respect him as a rival and couldn't imagine killing him…  
"Ten years ago, the graduation exam was forced to change," Kakashi said.  
"Change, why?"  
"Besides the fact that it was totally screwed up?" Taki sighed.  
"Without pause of hesitation, a young boy who didn't even qualify for the exam, had killed over a hundred of that year's ninja candidates."  
"Such good times," the Zabuza clone smirked and raced forward at her eyes full of bloodlust.  
Taki cried out as his elbow struck her. Taki grabbed his arm and using all of her arm strength cartwheeled over his body, landing behind him. He kicked out backwards and she spun sideways slightly, seconds away from getting struck by his powerful strike.  
He swung his sword and Taki dropped back, bridging underneath it as the sword struck the ground. He kicked again and this one hit her right on her bloody hip.  
She flew back landing painfully on thick root. Zabuza brought his foot down onto her ribs and started forcing his weight onto her ribs. Taki was near tears as she felt her ribs start to cave.  
"Taki!" Sakura cried, "Naruto, Sasuke _hurry_!"  
Suddenly kunai flew at Zabuza and he had to jump off her to avoid being struck. Then hundreds of Naruto's landed on the ninja forming a giant dome. Taki crawled into a sitting position and began making handsigns. In a second the clones disappeared as Naruto flew back. Zabuza went to charge as Taki finished her jutsu.  
"Tou Hitan! The Paralyzing Sorrow!"  
Large ropes of black darkness with curls of lightning white wrapped around Zabuza's clone as Naruto hurled a shuriken at Sasuke.  
"Sasuke catch!"  
Sasuke grabbed the windmill shuriken and smirked, {So that's your plan… good thinking Naruto!}  
"You think a shuriken will work against me?" the Zabuza clone laughed.  
Sasuke unfolded the shuriken to make it a huge four bladed shuriken, jumped and flung it, "Wind Shuriken! Windmill of Shadows!"  
The shuriken whooshed past the clone and towards the real Zabuza just as the clone used all of his strength to break her jutsu. The intense wave of chakra sent back at Taki threw her back into a tree, gripping her hip as blood dribbled slightly from her mouth. She looked over at the real Zabuza and saw him catch the shuriken with his left hand, but out of nowhere another shuriken flew at him.  
[A shuriken in the shadow of the other? Awesome. Good thinking Naruto.]  
But Zabuza leapt up and the shuriken flew underneath him, but Taki and Sasuke didn't even look fazed.  
"Like I said," Zabuza chuckled cruelly, "You're nothing but amateurs."  
Suddenly with a pop, the shuriken changed into Naruto with a kunai in hand. Naruto hurled the kunai at Zabuza.  
"EAT THIS!"

"EAT THIS!"  
There was nothing Zabuza could do, he still had the large shuriken in his left hand and his right hand was tied up with Kakashi. He had no other choice but to dodge and Kakashi was set free.  
Zabuza spun to Naruto, his face twisted with hatred and began to spun the large shuriken rapidly with Naruto still hanging in the air defenseless.  
"Damn you kid!" Zabuza roared.  
"Naruto no!" Taki went to move but the pain in her ribs and hip froze her.  
Suddenly the shuriken stopped and Taki saw her sensei standing there, hand gripping the shuriken wet silver hair falling against his angry eyes.  
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried happily.  
"Naruto, Takiko, Sasuke… that was an excellent plan and you did a great job," Kakashi's voice was surprisingly soft compared to his hard expression.  
Naruto grinned, "I used my shadow replication technique to distract him from the fact that I had actually changed into the shuriken. I had one of my replicas to throw me but I got worried because I thought Zabuza was going to attack Sasuke before we could get it done but Taki stopped him!"  
Sasuke smirked with a slight chuckle and said, "All it was, was luck."  
"Just luck?" Tazuna cried in disbelief.  
[Yeah right. For as much as we fight against each other, we were still able to communicate and work together without even talking.]  
"It was only because I was distracted," Zabuza scowled.  
"No," Kakashi's voice changed from the gentle tone he had used with the genin to a harsh angry one, "You were _forced _to cancel the jutsu. You _had _to cancel the jutsu but just so you know, that won't work on me twice."  
Taki watched Zabuza and Kakashi stare at one another her throat suddenly feeling dry. Her ribs hurt and her entire left side was stained with blood as the cut continued to bleed, in total she looked like she'd just stepped out of a horror movie.  
Kakashi knocked the shuriken away and into the lake and both of them leapt back, facing each other off with only about five yards of distance between them.  
Zabuza's hands began making a long line of handsigns, faster than her eyes could truly follow but Kakashi didn't. His hands made them nearly as fast, split seconds behind Zabuza.[Incredible…]  
The water between the ninja rippled and suddenly flew into the air into two large funnels.  
"Tori!" the two ninja shouted as they finished on the same handsign, "Suiten Suriyuuden no Jutsu!"  
The funnels suddenly took the form of two water dragons that weaved around each other until they finally collided. They formed huge waves and Taki gave a yelp, turned and scuttled up a tree as fast as she could. The giant waves launched towards the team and Sasuke cringed.  
"Sasuke," Taki offered her arm.  
Obviously not feeling too proud to accept help Sasuke reached up and let her pull him up onto the tree limb. The water slammed into the tree, rocking it enough that Taki gave a soft whimper as she nearly fell backwards her legs feeling weak from the blood loss. Sasuke grabbed her forearm bracing her and she gave him a nod of thanks. They turned their focus back to Kakashi and Zabuza. While the dragons battled above, Zabuza and Kakashi battled, sword against kunai. Suddenly the jonin leapt back at the same time and circled each other, their footsteps in the exact same pattern.  
Zabuza created a handseal and his eyes widened as Kakashi did the exact same handsign at the exact same time.  
"They're moving at the same time!" Tazuna gasped.  
Sakura looked up at Sasuke, "What's going on Sasuke?"  
Sasuke was silent.  
For a moment Taki was watching them and couldn't hear what they said but she could see their lips moving. It looked like they were saying the exact same thing, only Kakashi was saying them seconds before Zabuza. He was mimicking him.  
"You can't beat me you monkey!" Zabuza and Kakashi shouted at the same time.  
Zabuza's eyes widened and he scowled, "I'm going to make sure you can never open that copy-cat mouth again!"  
Zabuza swiftly began to form a sequence of complicated handsigns but Kakashi copied them as if he'd known them all his life. In shock Zabuza stopped, but Kakashi didn't.  
"Suiton Daibakutu no Jutsu!" Kakashi shouted.  
The water he stood in front of began to rise and suddenly flew out and into Zabuza.  
The tidal wave whooshed towards the team, by now Sakura and Tazuna had managed to scrabble into the same tree and Naruto gave a yelp as the water rushed towards him. He leapt up and crawled onto the same branch as Taki and Sasuke, gripping it with his legs and arms, eyes wide. The water forced Zabuza into a nearby tree and suddenly he cried out as kunai pierced his legs and arms, pinning him to it.  
Suddenly Kakashi was beside him, kunai at his throat, fingers resting against his temple with the other hand.  
"This is the end," Kakashi said in an ominous voice.  
"H-how? Can… can you see the future?" Zabuza's confidence had change to fear.  
"Yes," Kakashi smirked and breathed a sigh, "The mist is beginning to clear… and I can see this is the end of the road for you."

~~~~~~~

Suddenly blood spurted from Zabuza's neck and he slumped forward and to the ground, kunai falling from his arms. Taki looked behind them where there was a figure in the trees.  
"You were right, it was the end of his road," the delicate and soft male voice said.  
The boy hopped down beside them and bowed his head respectfully at Kakashi.  
"May thanks, I have been trying to take down Zabuza for some time now," the boy said, "I apologize for killing him after you and your students worked so hard to fight him, but I couldn't miss the opportunity."  
"That mask…" Taki said softly, "It means you're a tracking ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist am I correct?"  
"You are well informed," the boy seemed to be a little surprised that she knew.  
"A tracking ninja?" Naruto chirped from beside Taki.  
"Yeah Naruto a tracking ninja, if you actually showed up from class you'd know," Sakura sighed.  
Taki rolled her eyes, "Tracking or hunter ninja are specially trained ninja who chase down and assassinate exiled ninja… ninja like Zabuza. They kill the ninja to take any secrets about the village from the body."  
"That's right, I am the member of the Black Ops special division for pursuing ninja just like him," the boy glanced at her, "You should not be moving so much, that wound looks bloody."  
Taki made an odd face but Naruto stood up on the branch and pointed at the boy angrily, "Just who the hell do you think you are? Well?"  
"Calm down Naruto, he's not our enemy," Kakashi said softly.  
"Like hell!" he snorted and Taki had to stop a giggle, he never used to say that… until he started hanging around her, "Look at Zabuza! That guy was huge! We worked so hard and got the crap beat out of us and we still barely beat him! Then this kid comes along and takes him out in one strike! What does that make us?"  
Taki looked down at her knees, she hadn't thought of it like that. She suddenly felt weak, and she hated that feeling. Taki wasn't one with a need to be the prettiest, or the skinniest or the smartest, but she had to be strong.  
"How the hell am I supposed to just accept that?" Naruto continued to rant.  
"I understand that Naruto," Kakashi stood near the tree they were all in still, "But in this world there are kids who are your age and younger… but stronger than me."  
Taki felt his eyes wander towards Sasuke and herself, [Is he looking at me… or Sasuke?]  
The boy walked next to Zabuza, placed one of the dead ninja's arms around his shoulders and made a handsign.  
"The battle ends here. Please excuse me but I must dispose of this corpse, for it holds far too many secrets."  
Suddenly the boy was gone and Naruto growled.  
Kakashi sighed and pulled his headband back down over the Sharingan.  
"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Naruto yelled jumping up and down on the branch.  
"Naruto stop-" Taki was about to say as the branch snapped.  
Taki hit the ground on her butt and winced, her tailbone aching and her hip starting to reopen already.  
"Our mission isn't over yet," Kakashi said, "We still have to take Tazuna home."  
Taki gave a sigh.  
"Sorry everyone," Tazuna chuckled, "But you can all rest up at my house."  
The thought of rest had never sounded so good before.  
"Alright let's get moving!" Kakashi grinned, turned around and started walking forward.  
Then all of a sudden he froze and face planted into the ground unconscious.


	9. Scroll 7: A Short Recovery Time

Scroll 7; A Short Recovery Time… And Chakra Training?

~Taki's P.O.V~

4:32 P.M

"Are you feeling any better?" Tsunami asked.  
Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter had been caring for Taki for the past few hours, she had dressed her wound and declared Taki to be well enough to walk. She was pretty, not the daughter Taki expected from Tazuna. Dark brown hair to her shoulders and matching eyes with a fair complexion and sweet smile.  
"Yeah," Taki smiled and nodded, pulling on her shirt .  
"Are you positive? Or is that just a ninja's answer?" Tsunami teased.  
Taki rolled her eyes.  
"Well you're lucky, your teammate is perfectly fine too. I heard you did quite a bit to protect him."  
"Yeah well he's my teammate, I had to do what I could."  
"Sure, all girls throw themselves in front of giant swords for _teammates_."  
Taki's eyes went wide and her skin prickled at the thought of what Tsunami was implying  
"Excuse me?" Taki blinked at her.  
Tsunami smiled, for some reason she didn't mind how Tsunami teased her, maybe it was because she reminded her of her own mother Itanako.  
"You heard me," Tsunami folded Taki's freshly sewn clothes, "Look at that blush! I think you like him."  
Taki's skin prickled anime style and turned away from Tsunami, "I do **not**! He's a damned idiot!"  
Tsunami giggled, "Oh really? Well… your sensei would like to see you two soon. Wake him up and go to his room, I'm going downstairs to make dinner."  
Taki looked over at the sleeping boy on the top bunk. Somehow a few hours ago they'd gotten roped into sharing a room.

_Earlier: ~3:30 P.M~_

"_Sasuke, Takiko, I have a big favor to ask of the two of you. I know it will not be easy but Naruto and Sakura need to learn to get along. I know you and Sakura don't get along," Kakashi looked directly at Taki, "But they are a bigger issue. Will you and Sasuke share a bed?"  
__Taki's jaw dropped and eyes widened and Sasuke looked like he had just been asked if dressing like a woman was a hobby of his.  
_"_A room! A room!" Kakashi cried from his propped up position.  
__Taki anime fell backwards and sighed while Sasuke just looked a little ticked.  
_"_So-so you want me and Sasuke to share a room… we do get separate beds right?" Taki said softly.  
_"_Of course. Well it's a bunk bed but technically they're separate."  
__Taki and Sasuke looked at each other, a mix of irritation and are-you-serious on their faces.  
_"_Sensei… can't we talk about this?" Taki started but realized, Kakashi had fallen asleep.  
__[Looks like I have no choice.]_

~Present~  
"Hey sleepy head," Taki grabbed one of her slippers off her backpack and hurled it at Sasuke's sleeping form, "Hey! Wake up!"  
Sasuke sat up as the slipper slapped him in the side of the head, his eyes narrowed at her a scowl on his face.  
"What the hell?"  
"You sleep way too heavy," Taki sighed, "Get up. Sensei Kakashi wants to see us."  
Sasuke sighed and climbed off the top bunk searching for his shirt. Taki looked away, she hadn't realized he wasn't dressed, granted he had bandages around his ribs but really. Taki  
grabbed her crutch and hurried out.  
Taki sat beside Kakashi's feet, legs tucked neatly under her, tying off the long, slightly messy braid.  
"Kakashi-sensei, your Sharingan is really amazing but it seems to put a lot of stress on your body," Sakura commented, "I'm not sure if that's good or bad."  
"Sorry," Kakashi replied.  
"Sorry for what?" Taki smirked, "Kicking Zabuza's ass from Konoha and back?"  
"Language," Kakashi warned.  
"Well you did defeat that ninja, we should be okay for a while right?" Tazuna said as Sasuke sat down beside Taki.  
"Oh Sensei," Sakura suddenly remembered something, "Who was that odd boy in the mask?"  
"That mask, the marks on it are symbolic, he's a hunter ninja in a special squad of the ANBU Black Ops for the Hidden Mist Village."  
"Special squad?" Sakura echoed.  
"They're sometimes known as the Fire Extinguishing Unit, their job is to erase any evidence of a ninja ever being alive. That means the body, records, memories… everything," Taki continued, "They basically ensure that no one will ever know they existed."  
"Why would they want to do that?" Naruto asked.  
"Because the body of a ninja can give away secret ninja techniques and even the chakra of the village the ninja lived in. Also secret medical remedies and scrolls. For example, if I were to  
die, the secret of my Sharingan would be carefully examined, if they could they would steal my techniques and the Sharingan itself. So hunter ninja will kill the exiled ninja and dispose of the body carefully to stop any secrets of the village from being revealed."  
[Weird… even though Zabuza's dead and gone… something feels off… like I'm missing something…] Taki thought.  
She had been around ANBU Black Ops growing up, her mother had been an ANBU Black Op Medical Ninja specializing in CQC and swords while her father was a Hunter Ninja for the Black Ops, so she knew both sides of the spectrum. She had been taught by her father at an early age about missing-nin so she should have known this from the top of her head… what seemed so wrong about what that tracker ninja had done?  
"Kakashi-sensei is something wrong?" Naruto asked.  
Kakashi looked at his students, but it was Taki and Sasuke's faces that really caught his eye. Taki looked like she was trying to piece together a puzzle in her mind and Sasuke's face looked deadly serious, as if he was thinking exactly what she was.  
{For as poorly as they get along now, they still think alike,} Kakashi thought.  
"Well about what I was saying before, hunter ninja are supposed to dispose of the body at the spot they are felled…"  
"So I'm not the only one thinking that?" Taki asked more as a statement than a question.  
"Wait what?" Sakura asked.  
Taki rolled her eyes, "And you're supposed to be the smart one."  
Sakura glared and frowned and Taki ignored her.  
"But sensei, the ninja took Zabuza's body away to the village right?"  
"All the boy needed to do was bring back Zabuza's head to show proof he was dead."  
"That and his choice of weaponry," Taki nodded thinking of the medical needles.  
"They were long needles…" Sasuke nodded and then his eyes widened, "Medical needles so that means…"  
"You understand?" Taki looked at Sasuke with a nod.  
"What are you guys talking about?" Tazuna asked confused looking between Taki, Sasuke and Kakashi.  
"Zabuza is still alive," Kakashi said simply.  
"What?" everyone exclaimed but Sasuke and Taki.  
"What do you mean?" Naruto cried freaking out.  
"But you checked yourself he was dead!" Sakura cried.  
"I did," Kakashi said but shook his head, "But it seems he was in a near death state, the weapon that the ninja used isn't meant to kill. It's generally used in medical practice."  
"Any hunter ninja are experts on human anatomy," Taki said with a nod, "It would be simple for one to put a human in a near death state. Most genin studying in that practice know how to."  
"The reason I think that is because the boy took Zabuza's body… even though it was obviously very heavy… and hunter ninja dispose of the body on the site of death, they only need the head as proof of a successful hunt. And secondly he used a weapon that is very unlikely to kill. These two points add up to that boy not trying to harm Zabuza. But help."  
"M-maybe you're just thinking about it too much!" Tazuna shook his head like he didn't want to believe it.  
"No," Kakashi said in his firm voice, "Once a ninja feels something, they must prepare themselves before it is too late. It is a rule of ninja."  
Taki looked over at Naruto, who despite the quiver running through his spine, was smiling wickedly, [So you're ready for another shot.]  
"But Sensei… how do we prepare? I mean look at the state you're in!" Sakura asked.  
"I'm going to put all of you through training," Kakashi smiled.  
[Damn it,] Taki let out an overdramatic sigh.  
"How is training going to help us?" Sakura pestered.  
"Oh I don't know, maybe because that's what training is for?" Taki rolled her eyes.  
"But even you, a Sharingan user had a difficult time with Zabuza!" Sakura protested after sending a glare at Taki.  
"Sakura," Kakashi smiled, "Who was it that saved me when I was trapped? You all acted quickly and as a team… you're all growing at a very rapid rate," Kakashi complimented looking at his blond student, "Especially you Naruto… You've grown up the most."  
Naruto grinned and crossed his arms, "That's right sensei! Now things are gonna be interesting!"  
"No it's not…" a voice said.  
Everyone turned to look at the doorway. A little boy with scraggly black hair and even blacker eyes with a white and blue bucket hat stood there, fists clenched.  
[Who is that? He can't be much older than Kameko…]  
"Who the hell are you?" Naruto exclaimed pointing at the boy.  
"Naruto!" Taki scolded with a glare.  
"Inari! Where have you been?" Tazuna grinned holding his arms open.  
"Grandpa!" the little boy ran into his grandfather's hug.  
"Now Inari," Tsunami scolded gently following her son in, "Don't be rude, say hello. These nice ninja escorted grandpa here."  
"Aw it's alright, right Inari?" Tazuna put a hand on his grandson's head.  
[Thanks gramps…]  
Inari examined the tired looking group, and then finally looked back to his mom.  
"Mom they're all going to die."  
[Woah kid,] Taki sweat dropped, [Talk about a pessimist!]  
"They're never going to survive going up against Gatoh!" Inari persisted.  
"What did you say?" Naruto cried standing up abruptly, "Listen here! I'm a super hero! I'm gonna be a great ninja! The one known as Hokage! I don't know who this Gatoh is but he's no match for me!"  
"Hero?" Inari snorted, "Are you that much of an idiot? There's no such thing as a hero."  
[Wow… what a morbid kid…] Taki sighed.  
"What'd you say?" Naruto roared and lunged for the kid but Sakura was too fast for him, holding him back.  
Inari walked over to the door, "If you don't want to die… go home."  
[This kid… needs _serious _help.]  
"Inari! Where do you think you're going?" Tsunami had been standing there dumbstruck till now.  
"I'm going to watch the ocean…" Inari said softly and then left.

~2 Days Later, 9:14 A.M~

"Today we begin your training," Kakashi announced standing in front of Team 7, supported by two wooden crutches.  
Team 7 stood in the woods behind Tazuna's house in a small clearing. Taki's cut to her hip was almost completely healed and she was ready to work.  
"But before that, let me talk about chakra, the base ability of shinobi," Kakashi began.  
"I already know about that! Catra right?" Naruto cut him off grinning.  
[Moron…]  
"It's _chakra_ Naruto… not catra," Taki rolled her eyes.  
"Takiko, Sakura if you wouldn't mind?" Kakashi looked depressed with his hyperactive student.  
"Alright Naruto, I'll explain everything so even you can understand!" Sakura said.  
[Why you little…] Taki growled in her head.  
"Chakra-" Sakura began.  
"Chakra is the energy that a ninja must use in order to use a technique. This energy comes from the body's energy that is collected from every cell inside. It also comes from spirit energy, which is from training and experience," Taki cut her off.  
Sakura glared and tried again, "So in other words-"  
"In other words , technique comes from these two energies that are squeezed out of the body and then molded together. This process is known as making chakra, so with this chakra  
one is able to perform a technique by using handseals to command the chakra," Taki finished.  
"Well done Takiko," Kakashi complimented, "Iruka was blessed with very smart students."  
Taki stuck her tongue out at Sakura who got an anger mark on her head and shook a fist.  
"What's with that?" Naruto complained, "You can just learn with your body if you don't get the hard stuff!"  
[It's not even hard…]  
"Yeah," Sasuke agreed, "We can use those techniques anyway."  
"No," Kakashi shook his head, "You're not using your chakra completely."  
Everyone stared.  
"Just listen," Kakashi commanded, "Like Takiko explained, molding chakra is to extract energies from both body and spirit and then mixing them in your body. The amount of energy is different with each technique that you use, so naturally, the way you mix the energies is different as well. You are not able to use your chakra effectively. Even if you can mold large amounts of chakra if you can't control the balance then your technique is only half as effective. Wasting energy will become a weakness of inability to fight for long periods of time."  
"So…" Naruto drew out that noise, "What do we do?"  
"You're going to learn to control it with your bodies… you must go through harsh training that puts your life in danger."  
Taki's face darkened slightly.  
"S-so… what are we going to do?" Sakura stuttered.  
"Climb trees."  
Taki face palmed, "Sensei… just what medication does Tsunami have you on?"  
Kakashi frowned at her, "You're going to climb one. Without using your hands. Watch."  
He performed a handsign and dust rose around his feet, then walked over to a nearby tree and pressed a foot against the trunk.  
[No way!] Taki watched wide eyed as he began to walk vertically up the tree then horizontally along a thick branch from which he hung like a bat, crutches still in place.  
"Gather your chakra to the soles of your feet and let it act like a suction cup."  
"How will we be strong doing that?" Sakura cried.  
"The main purpose of this training is to calculate how much chakra you need in a very specific location. This can be difficult even for a skilled ninja. The amount needed for tree climbing is quite subtle but the most difficult area to concentrate chakra is the soles of your feet… so in theory if you master this you can learn any technique."  
"In theory?" Taki asked.  
"The second purpose to this is to work on molding chakra. Most of the time a ninja must mold their chakra during battle which is the most difficult time to do so," he waved his hand, "But you'll never learn anything if I sit here and lecture all day."  
[Sure we will. We'll learn how beautiful the back of our eyelids are.]  
Four kunai flew from Kakashi's hand to strike the ground before their feet.  
"Use that to mark how far up the tree you can reach. Then try to get higher each time. None of you have the control to walk, so get a running start got it?"  
Taki grabbed her kunai and spun it in her hand with a smirk.  
"This is gonna be easy," Naruto grinned.  
Ignoring her friend Taki closed her eyes and held her hands together in a sign.  
[Concentrate your chakra to the soles of your feet… Don't break focus.]  
She suddenly felt dirt rise around her feet as power surged into her toes making them tingle.  
"Let's do it!" Naruto yelled.  
Taki opened her eyes just in time to see Naruto make two steps up the tree before falling back, wailing at the new bump on his head.  
With a deep breath she ran forward feeling her feet suction to the tree. It was the oddest sensation in the world. Taki felt herself going higher and higher. It seemed as if she breathed too deep the weightlessness would end and she'd tumble to the ground. Suddenly she felt her feet unstuck and she fought to get more chakra into her soles. She made two more steps and felt the bark crack. She had no choice.  
Taki slashed the bark and back flipped off, then looked up.  
[I didn't even get that far…] she had made maybe twenty feet, [It's so difficult… Too little chakra and you fall off… too much and you break the tree.]  
She shook out her legs and ran back at it.  
[I'm going to do this!]  
"Well, well, well. Look at this. Our little pink haired kunoichi seems to have the best chakra control."  
Taki looked up at Kakashi's statement. Sakura was perched at close to the top of her tree giggling.  
[She's higher than me!] Taki was floored.  
"Wow Sakura!" Naruto praised her.  
"Your chakra control and stamina is excellent," Kakashi smiled, "It looks like Sakura is closest to Hokage right now… I guess the Uchiha clan isn't as great as they say… and as for you Ryouko…"  
"Don't!" Taki warned pointing the kunai at him, "I'm going to take you down Sakura! I am going to climb this tree!"  
Taki made the handsign and flew at the tree, running up it so fast the dirt didn't have time to settle before she was heading to the top.  
[I'm doing it!] She looked down, she had to have been forty feet up!  
_Thump.  
_[What…]  
_Thump.  
_Suddenly pain exploded in her chest and Taki couldn't breathe. She scrabbled to grab a branch but she was too far…  
_Thump.  
_She tumbled towards the ground.


	10. An Apology To My Fans

An apology to all my readers,

I am so so so so SOOOOO sorry for not having done ANYTHING with my stories. My laptop decided to have death happen, and so all my stories are currently MIA on that hard drive. Until I can get it stripped or bring it back from death, I won't be continuing The Only Love I Could Ever Have, because around 20 chapters are on that hard drive nor will I be able to start Shadow of the Avatar, because it too has chapters on that laptop. I have finals coming up soon for my senior year of high school, as well as an anime convention, so no new work will be posted during March. On the plus side however, I do have EVERY intention of beginning a new story in April and I would LOVE for you guys to help me choose! I can currently begin either-

Beside Our Brothers-  
A Gears of War fan fiction that will follow female Gear Natalya Ravish, a Russian born woman who joined the COG after E Day. It follows her through the main Gears of War storyline (only video games, sorry comic people! I don't own the comics so I can't follow that!) alongside Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago.

Requiem for a Dream-  
A Dragon Age: Origins fan fiction following Aelaera Anathema, a young woman who must leave her tribe of Dancers (a fictional race that I've put into the series for my own liking) to join the Grey Wardens, only to find out destiny has much more in store for her.

So please take the time to vote on which one you'd prefer to see, or send me a request for a story I already have down on my profile page! If I get enough, I might just do one of them instead!

If you guys have any requests for a short story (romantic or otherwise!) please don't hesitate to send me an email, I would LOVE to oblige my wonderful readers! I promise once I get my laptop and its contents back, I will post a TON of TOLICEH and SotA!

Thank you guys SO much for being patient with me!

Much love,  
Moonlit


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